MUTE SWAN 71 



Mute Swan. 



Cijgniis olor. Penr, Punjabi. 



The only swan which visits India in any numbers, and that 

 only in hard winters, is the well-known bird that is kept as an 

 ornament all over the civilized world. No doubt a few come 

 in every winter, and they have been killed in the hot weather 

 on two occasions ; but that the bird has always been a rarity is 

 proved by the fact that Calcutta dealers have for many years 

 imported them from Europe by the dozen, and by the fact that 

 there is no true native name — Penr really meaning? a pelican. 



Tbis swan may be distinguished from all others by the black 

 knob at the base of the bill, but as this is little developed in the 

 young birds, the best point to go by is the colour of the bare 

 patch, which extends from the bill to the eye ; this in this 

 species is black as well, whatever the age. In young birds the 

 plumage shows more or less drab, and their bills are not of the 

 full orange-red colour of the old birds, but some shade of grey 

 or pink. 



Although so well known as a tame bird, and well established 

 as an " escape " breeding at large in some parts of Britain, and, 

 doubtless, elsewhere, this sw^an has, for a water-bird, not a very 

 wide range; nor does it go very far north, its true home being 

 Central and South-eastern Europe and Western and Central 

 Asia. In winter it visits North Africa, but does not go very 

 far west ; and India appears to be its eastern limit on its 

 southerly migrations. And with us it only comes to the North- 

 west, the Peshawar and Hazara districts being the most likely 

 ones in which to find it. The birds have generally been seen 

 singly or in small flocks, and have shown a tameness which has 

 been rewarded by unrelenting slaughter in too many cases — as 

 if one such bird were not enough for a record, the species being 

 so unmistakable. 



At the same time, although swans are bat rarely eaten in 

 Europe nowadays, it may be remembered that they are edible — 

 at any rate the grey yearling birds — which are still fattened for 

 eating at Norwich, if nowhere else in England. In view 

 of the occasional occurrence of these swans in summer, and of 



