Trumpeter Swans in MD
S. Harvey Mudd, MD (shm@codon.nih.gov)
Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:08:55 -0500
A brief addendum to Phil Davis's posting about Trumpeter Swans and the fact
that they were accepted last year by the Maryland/DC Records Committee as an
extirpated species in Maryland: As detailed by Phil, the gazetteer
published in 1835 by Joseph Martin was thorough enough to give values for
the wingspread and length of the larger of the two kinds of swans
frequenting the Potomoc at the mouth of the Occoquan and below (the kind
Martin called "trumpeter"). On checking, it turned out that those
dimensions are compatible with the dimensions of Trumpeter Swan, and are too
large to be compatible with Tunda/Whistling/(??slooper) Swan.
Harvey
____________________________________
S. Harvey Mudd
NIMH/DIRP/LMB
Building 36, Room 1B-08
36 CONVENT DR MSC 4034
BETHESDA MD 20892-4034
tel: 301-496-0681; fax 301-402-0245
email: shm@codon.nih.gov