682 CYGNUS AMERICANUS. 



was of a deep leaden tint, and the feet and legs were of a 

 light grey colour. This specimen measured six feet and 

 eight inches between the points of the extended wings, four 

 feet two inches from the point of the beak to the tail, and 

 weighed eleven pounds," the greatest weight of an adult 

 being about twenty-one pounds. 



This species has not hitherto been known to visit any 

 part of Europe, although the occurrence there of a bird 

 capable of flying a hundred miles an hour would not be 

 surprising. 



In February, 1841, having been informed that there was 

 in a poulterer's in Edinburgh a Swan, somewhat remarkable 

 on account of the dark colour of its head and small size, I 

 went to see it ; but not being at the time engaged with 

 birds of this family, did not purchase it. However, a gentle- 

 man having bought it on my account, I found that it pre- 

 sented some of the characters of Bewick's Swan, but was 

 considerably larger than even adults of that species. It was 

 a young bird in pale grey plumage, with the upper part of 

 the head dusky, the bill partially flesh-coloured, the feet 

 black, and the tail-feathers eighteen. This latter circum- 

 stance induced me to incline to the opinion of its being 

 Cygnus Bewickii ; and on dissecting it I found the vertical 

 bend of the trachea, and the form and position of the inferior 

 larynx and bronchi, to agree with that species ; but the 

 sternum was larger, the stomach vastly superior in size, and 

 the intestine longer and wider. I then compared it with a 

 stuffed adult specimen of the American Swan, and a pre- 

 pared head and bill of a young bird of the same species, 

 together with my notes and drawings of dissections of Cygnus 

 musicus, Bewickii, and Americanus, and became satisfied of 

 its belonging to the latter species. Its description is as 

 follows : — 



The body is of an ovato-elliptical form, rather depressed, 

 especially at its fore part ; the neck extremely long and mode- 

 rately thick ; the head of moderate size, oblong, and com- 

 pressed. The bill is slightly longer than the head, straight, 

 higher than broad at the base, gradually depressed, of almost 

 equal breadth throughout, being bowever a twelfth of an inch 



