DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: WHISTLING SWAN 103 
SWANS: Subfamily Cygninae 
Swans are the largest waterfowl with extremely long necks of 22 to 
24 vertebrae. The skin is bare from eye to bill—lores (Forbush). 
WHISTLING SWAN: Cygnus columbianus (Ord) 
Description. — Length: About 4J^ feet, extent 7 feet, wing 21-22 inches, bill 
3.8-4.2. Bill not longer than head, widened near tip; distance from anterior edge 
of eye to posterior border of nostril much (about l/5) greater than distance from 
latter to tip of bill; tail usually of 20 feathers; bronchial dilation small or of moderate 
size. Adults: Pure white , usually with a small yellow spot between bill and eye; bill, 
legs, and feet black. Young in juvenal plumage: “Sooty brownish” on head, neck 
and back leaden-ashy, rump and tail white or ashy; underparts white with gray 
wash; iris brown, bill purplish flesh color; legs and feet flesh color (Nelson). 
Comparisons. —“In flight, swans carry their extremely long necks outstretched 
like cranes, but do not thrust out long legs behind” (Taverner). 
The Whistling and Trumpeter Swans are so similar that their final identification 
must rest on anatomical characters—the Trumpeter’s large bronchial dilation (Ober- 
holser) made by the vertical hump of the windpipe, lacking in the Whistling Swan 
(see diagrams in Taverner, 1926, pp. 112-113). 
Range. —North America. Breeds mainly north of the Arctic Circle south to 
Barren Grounds of northern Canada and islands in Hudson Bay; winters mainly on 
the sea coasts of the United States, most commonly on the Atlantic seaboard; on the 
Pacific coast from Alaska to Lower California; in the interior on large bodies of 
open water, from Lake Erie to Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. 
State Records. —Formerly the Whistling Swan occurred in New Mexico as a 
rare migrant; two were noted November 14, 1846, on the Rio Grande a little south 
of Socorro (Abert), and one was taken a few years afterwards at Fort Thorn 
(Henry). About 1903, three stayed for two or three weeks at Patterson (Andrus). 
On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve a few were noted during the winter of 1911-1912, 
and 12-15 wintered in 1914-15 (Willett). [In February, 1920, one was seen on a 
small lake 6 miles northeast of Albert, Union County; March 21, one at the Rio 
Grande Gun Club lakes 5 miles southwest of Albuquerque; March 19, 23 were 
seen by W. R. Britton, U. S. Game Warden, at the same place (Ligon). At Silver 
City it is of rare occurrence, but one was seen on the Rio Mimbres March 14, 1920 
(Kellogg).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Food. —Aquatic plants, as sedge, pondweed, and wild celery; also dry land 
forms, worms, insects, small mollusks, and various kinds of aquatic animal life. 
General Habits. —On the breeding grounds of the Whistling Swan 
near the mouth of the Yukon, in 1880, Doctor Nelson found a shallow 
lake grown up with horse-tails that formed “a general rendezvous for 
all the swans of the vicinity,” from one hundred to five hundred being 
seen in the small area. Their combined cries could be heard for three 
miles or more and made “a grand and melodious concert” with the 
“organ-like swell and fall in their notes,” while the snowy bodies and 
beautiful forms of the groups of the graceful birds swinging back and 
forth made one of the most unique and interesting sights of an experience 
in the north (1887, p. 92). 
