196 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES XATIOXAL MUSEUM. 



lu 1871 Mr. A. O. Hume described two yoiiug swans from Iu;lia un- 

 der the name C. tmicini, which I consider not to be identical with the 

 gibbiis, as is the general opinion, for the following reason: 



They are said to have not the fixintest trace of a tubercle. The young 

 of the common Mute Swan get their knob very early, as soon as they 

 have been full feathered. The fact that the female has a smaller and 

 more indistinct knob is of no consequence, while Hume had before him 

 both male and female. They were, too, full grown, ready to take the 

 white plumage in the first spring, and in this age the young gibhus has 

 a very distinct knob, even in the female sex. 



Nor can these birds be identified with the immutabiUs Yarr., the 

 total absence of the knob and the brownish ])lumage being invincible 

 obstacles. 



On the other hand, the description in these points agrees very well 

 with the above-mentioned birds from Egypt. The following description 

 is by Hume: "From the frontal feathers to beyond the end of the nasal 

 fossa, a distance of very nearly 1^ inch, the culmen is a perfectly straight 

 line. Beyond this there is a very shallow concavity to the posterior 

 margin of the nail." 



To the foregoing five specimens I add a sixth, which agrees in the 

 eastern habitat, the absence of the tubercle, and the apparently dark 

 young plumage, viz: the bird, w^hich C. A. Wright mentions (Ibis, 

 1874, p. 241), as follows: "There is an example of C. olor in the Malta 

 University INIuseum nearly pure white, but with scarcely any appear- 

 ance of the frontal knob." 



The Polish Swans, indicated to have been found in Corfu and Epirus 

 (Ibis, 1860, p. 351, and 1870, p. 338), probably may also belong to the 

 species here in question. 



K. K. Hof.-Nat. Cab. Vienna. [Tal-en alive in March, 1856, on Lal-e 

 Menzaleh, Egypt; died in confinement at Vienna, 1857. By H. Zele- 

 BOR.) 



Total length 1,300'"'" (v. Pelzeln in litt.) * 



Length of the bill along gape Ol"'™, from the tip to the front of the 

 nostrils 51"'", to the fore border of the eye 113"""; breadth of bill at 

 nostrils 32'"'". Length of toes with claws: outer toe 138, middle toe 

 148, inner toe 108, and hind toe 30'"'". Tarsus 96, wing 535, and tail 

 193""". 



Mr. A. V. Pelzeln t describes the color of the bill on the newly dead 

 bird as orange changing into crimson, with the same black markings 

 as the Mute Swan. On the stuffed bird the black color has the follow- 



* The dimensions of the two other specimens were : Total length 1,360 and IjSSO™"' ; 

 wing 540 and 550; bill along gape 105 and 85'"'". (v. Pelz. !» Utt.) 



tSehr. Zool. Bot. Ver. Wien, Bd. XII. 1862, p. 785: Notiz. Uber Cygnus immuta- 

 lilis Yarkell. Von A. v. Pelzeln. 



