The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service patted itself on the back. It had saved from extinction North America's biggest wild bird, the trumpeter swan. Once the trumpeters ranged over much of the U.S., flying in grand formations like long-necked B-295. But their brilliant white plumage and 8-ft. wingspread made them barndoor targets. Their flesh was tasty, their feathers salable.
In intelligence the trumpeters were fair, but at reproduction they were sluggish. They grew scarcer & scarcer until, in 1935, there were only 73. They no longer wintered in southern feeding grounds, but huddled, half-starving, on spring-warmed patches of open water in Rocky...
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