BEWICK'S SWAN. 673 



two inches and ten-twelfths in length, two inches and 

 three-fourths in breadth at the base. The right lobe of 

 the liver three inches and a half, the left two and a half in 

 length. 



The dimensions of this individual, if taken at the time, 

 have been lost. 



Habits. — This species had been confounded with the 

 Common Wild Swan until Mr. Richard Wingate of New- 

 castle-on-Tyne, in a paper read before the Literary and Phi- 

 losophical Society of that city, showed the difference between 

 the two species, which were further particularly described by 

 Mr. Yarrell, who disclosed the anatomical differences between 

 them, and by Mr. Selby. Subsequently, it was considered 

 the same as the smaller species of Swan common in many 

 parts of North America, which, however, has been shown to 

 be distinct by Dr. J. T. Sharpless of Philadelphia, in an 

 elaborate paper published in the twenty-second volume of the 

 American Journal of Science and Arts. These circumstances 

 I here mention only as introductory to the remark, that the 

 habits of Bewick's Swan, although they may not differ 

 materially from those of either Cygnus musicus or Cygnus 

 Americanus, have not hitherto been made a subject of obser- 

 vation. Since its discovery it has been frequently shot in 

 England, and in several instances found in collections. In 

 1836 I had an adult female, and in 1888 a male, both ob- 

 tained in Edinburgh, and no doubt shot in Scotland. All 

 that I can learn respecting its habits is, that it appears to 

 visit us annually in winter, and to be more numerous, or more 

 easily obtained, during severe or long-continued snow-storms, 

 when it betakes itself to estuaries or the open sea-coast. We 

 may presume that it is gregarious, has a rapid direct flight, 

 and in these, as well as in other respects, resembles the larger 

 species. Like them it feeds on the roots of aquatic plants. 

 Mr. Thomr)son finds it more common than the Hooper in 

 Ireland. " In addition to my own observations on the sub- 

 ject, Mr. Pv. Ball considers that four-fifths of the Wild Swans 

 brought to Dublin market are C. Bewickii. A similar pro- 

 portion, too, occurred in Connaught, to Mr. G. Jackson, 



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