280 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



several hundreds, at the times of migration. Their flight is easy and well sus- 

 tained and usually conducted at a great height. It is exercised without much 

 noise, except on first rising or alighting, when the sound may be heard to a 

 considerable distance. It is said that they can fly at the rate of above 100 

 miles an hour. They walk well and can also run ^-ith considerable rapidity. 

 In swimming about, except when feeding, the neck is carried in an upright 

 posture and seldom in the arched manner characteristic of the other species. 

 In walking the neck is bent backward over the body and the head lowered as 

 if to preserve a proper balance. 



The note resembles the word " hoop," repeated ten or a dozen times ; hence 

 the name of the bird. It is both loud, clear, and sonorous, and sounds aloft 

 like the clang of a trumpet. Other inflections of their voice are expressed by 

 Meyer, by the syllables " hang, hang," " grou, gi~ou," and " killelee." Montagu 

 writes that having killed one of these species out of a flock of 10 or 12 its 

 companions flew around several times making a most melancholy cry before 

 they flew off. 



Mr. Cordeaux (1898) refers to the notes of this swan as follows: 



There is no sound in nature more likely to attract attention than the aerial 

 music of a herd of migrating swans passing high overhead ; some speak of it 

 as exhilarating to the highest degree, but to me there is always a touch of 

 sadness in the sound — the sadness of Highland music in those long drawn, 

 melancholy, and plaintive notes, which seem suggestive of the illimitable wilds 

 of the great lone lands where the birds have passed the long day of the short 

 Arctic summer. 



He further says : 



Mr. St. John has seen them arrive on Loch Spynie as early as September 30. 

 He says : " While they remain with us, they frequent and feed in shallow pieces 

 of water, of so small a depth that in many places they can reach the bottom 

 with their long necks and pluck off the water grasses on which they feed. 

 While employed in tearing up these plants, the swans are generally sur- 

 rounded by a number of smaller water fowl, such as wigeon and teal, who 

 snatch at and carry off the pieces detached by their more powerful companions. 

 The rapidity of the flight of a swan is wonderful ; one moment they are far 

 from you, the next they have passed you like an arrow. This speed, however, 

 is only attained when at a considerable height above the ground." Swans are 

 most powerful swimmers and will swim out from the seashore in the teeth of 

 a considerable gale with the greatest ease. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Palearctic region. East to northeastern Siberia 

 (Anadyr and Kamchatka) and the Commander Islands. West to 

 Great Britain. South to about 65° N. in northern Siberia and about 

 62° N. in northern Europe. North of the Arctic Circle in Finland 

 and Scandinavia. West to Iceland, and formerly to Greenland. 



Winter range. — South to southern Europe (rarely to northern 

 Africa), central Asia, Persia, China, and Japan. 



Casual records. — Now only casual in Greenland (Atangmik, 

 Godthaab, Ingtuk, and Arsuk). 



Egg dates. — Iceland: Ten records. May 1 to June 18. Great 

 Britain : Five records, April 20 to June 21. 



