104 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
A spring flight of Whistling Swans at the mouth of the Detroit 
River, Michigan, was photographed in 1925, showing over a hundred 
birds in the passing section (Auk, XLIII, 363, 1926, photograph). 
In the spring of 1908, a tragedy occurred in the ranks of the eastern 
migrants at Niagara Falls. A flock of three or four hundred lit in the 
Upper Niagara River above the falls, and weakened by struggling with 
the swift current about a hundred of them were swept over the preci¬ 
pice of the great falls, many being killed against the ice bridge at its foot. 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., TJ. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 130, 281-293, 
1925.— Fleming, J. II., Auk, XXV, 306-309, 1908.— Torrey, Bradford, Field 
Days in California, 80-92, 1913. 
[TRUMPETER SWAN: Cygnus buccinator Richardson 
Description. — Length: 5-5feet, extent 8 to nearly 10 feet , wing 21-27.5 
inches, bill 4.3-4.7, longer than head. Distance from anterior edge of eye to 
posterior edge of nostril not much greater than distance from posterior edge of 
nostril to tip of bill; tail usually of 24 feathers; bronchial dilation very large (Ober- 
holser); windpipe in sternum mth vertical hump (Taverner, 1926, pp. 112-113). 
Adults: Superficially indistinguishable from Whistling Swans except by size but 
bill wholly black (never with yellow spot). 
Range. —Formerly ranging to Atlantic and Pacific coasts, breeding from near 
Arctic coast south to Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, and casually west 
to British Columbia and Fort Yukon, Alaska (Forbush). Probably still breeds 
sparingly in the wilder parts of Wyoming (increasing in Yellowstone Park), western 
Montana, Alberta, British Columbia (Skeena River), and northwestern Canada 
(Bent). "Still occurs in some numbers from Saskatchewan to the Pacific . . . 
a certain number wintering in eastern Washington, Oregon, or southern Idaho 
(Allan Brooks). 
State Records. —In Colorado the Trumpeter Swan, now nearly extinct, was 
formerly known as a rare migrant, and it is almost certain that these migrants 
entered New Mexico, although there are apparently no New Mexico records.— 
W. W. Cooke. 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 130, 293-301, 
1925.— Coale, H. K., Auk, XXXII, 82-90, 1915.— Skinner, M. P., Roosevelt Wild 
Life, Bull. Ill, 153-155, 1925.— Taylor, W. P., Wilson Bull., XXXV, pp. 
137, 138, September, 1925.1 
GEESE: Subfamily Anserinae 
In length of neck and usual size the Geese are intermediate between 
the Ducks and Swans. Unlike Swans the skin between the eye and 
bill (lores) is completely feathered. Unlike most Ducks, they have no 
iridescent wing patch (speculum). 
CANADA GOOSE: Branta canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus) 
Plate 8 
Description. — Length: About 35-43 inches, wing 15.6-21, bill 1.5-2.7, tarsus 
2.4-3.7. Adults: Head and neck black with a broad white throat band extending up 
across cheeks; body mainly brown or brownish gray, feathers tipped with lighter; 
