I kept a male alive upwards of two years, while I was residing at Henderson in Kentucky. It had been slightly wounded in the tip of the wing, and was caught after a long pursuit in a pond from which it could not escape. Its size, weight, and strength rendered the task of carrying it nearly two miles by no means easy; but as I knew that it would please my wife and my then very young children, I persevered. Cutting off the tip of the wounded wing, I turned it loose in the garden. Although at first extremely shy, it gradually became accustomed to the servants, who fed it abundantly, and at length proved so gentle as to come to my wife’s call, to receive bread from her hand. “Trumpeter,” us we named our bird, in accordance with the general practice of those who were in the habit of shooting this species, now assumed a character which until then had been unexpected, and laying aside his timidity became so bold at times as to give chase to my favourite Wild Turkey Cock, my dogs, children, and servants. Whenever the gates of our yard happened to be opened, he would at once make for the Ohio, and it was not without difficulty that he was driven home again. On one occasion, he was absent a whole night, and I thought he had fairly left us; but intimation came of his having travelled to a pond not far distant. Accompanied by my miller and six or seven of my servants, I betook myself to the pond, and there saw our Swan swimming buoyantly about as if in defiance of us all. It was not without a great deal of trouble that we at length succeeded in driving it ashore. Pet birds, good Reader, no matter of what species they are, seldom pass their lives in accordance with the wishes of their possessors; in the course of a dark and rainy night, some of the servants having left the gate open, Trumpeter made his escape, and was never again heard of.
With the manners of this species during the breeding season, its mode of constructing its nest, the number of its eggs, and the appearance of its young, I am utterly unacquainted. The young bird represented in the plate was shot near New Orleans, on the 16th of December 1822. A figure of the adult male you will find in Plate CCCCVI; and should I ever have opportunities of studying the habits of this noble bird, believe me I shall have much pleasure in laying before you the results. Dr Richardson informs us that it “is the most common Swan in the interior of the Fur Countries. It breeds as far south as lat. 61°, but principally within the arctic circle, and in its migrations generally precedes the Geese a few days.”
As the adult bird will be subsequently described, I judge it unnecessary at present to enter into a full detail of the external form and characters of the species, and will therefore confine myself to the colours and proportions of the individual represented.
Cygnus Buccinator, Richardson.—Trumpeter Swan, Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p.464. “White; head glossed above with chestnut; bill entirely black, without a tubercle; tail-feathers 24; feet black.”
Young after first moult. Plate CCCLXXVI.
In winter the young has the bill black, with the middle portion of the ridge, to the length of an inch and a half, light flesh-colour, and a large elongated patch of light dull purple, on each side; the edge of the lower mandible and the tongue dull yellowish flesh-colour. The eye is dark brown. The feet dull yellowish-brown, tinged with olive; the claws brownish-black; the webs blackish-brown. The upper part of the head and the cheeks are light reddish-brown, each feather having towards its extremity a small oblong whitish spot, narrowly margined with dusky; the throat nearly white, as well as the edge of the lower eyelid. The general colour of the other parts is greyish-white, slightly tinged with yellow; the upper part of the neck marked with spots similar to those on the head.
Length to end of tail 52 1/2 inches; extent of wings 91, wing from flexure 23 1/4; bill along the ridge 4 3/8, from the angle of the eye 6, along the edge of the lower mandible 4 1/8; tarsus 4 1/2; hind toe 1 1/4, its claw 3/8; middle toe 6 1/4, its claw 1; inner toe 4 1/2, its claw 10/12; outer toe 6 1/4, its claw 3/4. Weight 19 lb. 8 oz.; the bird very poor.
SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN.
Aramus Scolopaceus, Vieill.
PLATE CCCLXXVIL Male.
This very remarkable bird appears to be entirely confined to that section of the Peninsula of Florida known by the name of “Ever-glades,” and the swampy borders of the many bayous and lagoons issuing from that great morass. Few are found farther north than “Spring-garden Spring,” of which I have given you an account. I have heard of its having been in one instance procured on one of the Florida Keys, by Mr Titian Peale, whose specimen, which was a young male, has been described and figured in the continuation of Wilson’s American Ornithology. None were seen by me on any of these islands, and our worthy Pilot told me, that in the course of the many years which he had spent in that country he had never met with one off the main-land. It did not occur to me on any part of the coast, while I was proceeding to the Texas, nor is it to be found in that country, which seems very strange, when I look at this bird, and compare it with the Rail family, which is so abundant along the whole of that coast, and to which it is very nearly allied in some of its habits, more especially to the Fresh-water Marsh Hen, Rallus elegans.