SWANS 231 



WILD SWAN or WHOOPER.i Cygnus musicus, Bech- 

 stein. PL 27, fig. 12. Length, 5 ft. ; bill, 4-25 in. ; 

 wing, 25*5 in. ; tarsus, 4-25 in. 



Formerly nested in the Orkneys, as well as in the 

 Faroe Islands, but now only met with as a winter 

 visitant from Lapland, where Wolley found it 

 breeding, and countries farther to the north-east ; 

 most numerous in Scotland, but seen in most of the 

 harbours on the east and south coasts of England 

 during hard weather in January and Februaiy. See 

 my article on Wild Swans, giving dates of arrival, 

 Field, Feb. 20, 1886. 



In Ireland the Whooper occurs as a winter 

 visitor in the proportion of one to twenty-five 

 of Bewick's Swan, and is therefore a rarer bird. 



For an account of the breeding of Cygnus 

 musicus and C. hewickii, see Seebohm and Harvie- 

 Brown " On the Birds of the Lower Petchora " (Ibis, 

 1876, pp. 437-441), and of the inter-breeding of 

 Cygnus musicus and C. buccinator (ZooL, 1895, p. 24). 



For descriptions of shooting Wild Swans in a 

 Sussex harbour see " Essays on Sport and Natural 

 History," 1883 ; and of catching Wild Swans in Ice- 

 land, Zool, 1887, p. 254; Field, Nov. 2 and 23, 

 1895; Zool, 1896, p. 356. 



1 It would seem that "whoop" is the older form, from the Anglo- 

 Saxon hwopan, to cry out ; " hoop," from the French houper, with the 

 same signification, is of later introduction, and came in with other 

 Norman words relating to the chase. The former mode of spelling has 

 lon;^ been sanctioned by many authorities, and, for the reasons given, 

 thoui,'h both forms are to be found in standard English dictionaries, 

 it is here adopted 



