Trumpeter swan was still capable of flight due to its bulk. The adult trumpeter swan is all white in plumage. Like mute swan cygnets, the cygnets of the trumpeter swan have light grey plumage and pinkish legs, and gain their white plumage after about a year. As with a whooper swan, this species has upright posture and generally swims with a straight neck. The trumpeter swan has a large, wedge-shaped black bill that can, in some cases, be minimally lined with salmon-pink coloration around the mouth. The bill, measuring , is up to twice the length of a Canada goose's ("Branta canadensis")
What Bird is That? to the League for £300. The book was extolled fulsomely by S.R. Thomas, of the NSW Department of Education, as follows; ""What Bird is That?" is the most comprehensive and informative bird book published in the Commonwealth – if not in the world. The coloured plates are a triumph not only of the genius and imagination of the artist – our own Neville Cayley on whom has fallen so fittingly the mantle of his famous father – but also of the block-maker’s and printer’s art. The publishers have done nothing finer of its kind. The life-like portrayals of our feathered