rownish red is found on some individuals
on the crown of the head, and a small patch of orange-yellow extends
from the angles of the mouth to the eye. On the base of the bill is a
fleshy tubercle or knob, and the upper mandible is curved at the tip.

The young of this species are of a bluish-grey colour, with more of the
brown-red tinge upon the head. The naked yellow patch, extending from
the angles of the mouth to the eye, in the young birds, is covered with
feathers, and their bills are flesh-coloured. This description answers
in every respect for the swan of Bewick; but the latter species is only
three-fourths the size of the former; and, besides, it has only eighteen
tail feathers, while the American swan has twenty. Their note is also
entirely unlike.

The "Trumpeter" is different from either. He is the largest, being
frequently met with of nearly six feet in length, while the common swan
rarely exceeds five. The bill of the Trumpeter is not tuberculated; and
the yellow patch under the eye is wanting. The bill, legs, and feet are
entirely black. All the rest is white, with the exception of the head,
which is usually tinged with chestnut or red-brown. When young, he is
of a greyish-white, with a yellow mixture, and the head of deeper
red-brown. His tail feathers are twenty-four in number; but there is a
material difference between him and his congeners in the arrangement of
the windpipe. In the Trumpeter this enters a protuberance that stands
out on the dorsal aspect of the sternum, which is wanting in both the
other kinds. It may be that this arrangement has something to do with
his peculiar note, which differs altogether from that of the others. It
is much fuller and louder, and at a distance bears a considerable
resemblance to the trumpet or French horn. Hence the trivial name by
which this species is known to the hunters.

All the American swans are migratory--that is, they pass from north to
south, every autumn, and back again from south to north in the beginning
of spring.

The period of their migration is different with the three species. The
Trumpeter is the earliest, preceding all other birds, with the exception
of the eagles. The _Cygnus Americanus_ comes next; and, lastly, the
small swans, that are among the very latest of migratory birds.

The Trumpeters seek the north at the breaking up of the ice. Sometimes
they arrive at a point in their journey where this has not taken place.
I