Bewick's swan. 57 



the slightest remams of grey in their plumage ; and in 

 such immature examples the tints of the bill, both black 

 and yellow, are less vivid. An adult bird, purchased 

 in Norwich Market by Mr. F. Norgate, on the 1st of 

 February, 1865, weighed thirteen pounds, and of two 

 killed in the winter of 1870-71, a male weighed twelve 

 pounds and a quarter, and a female nine pounds. In 

 many adult birds of this species that I have seen, the 

 feathers of the upper part of the head, especially, have 

 been more or less tinged with rust colour. Internally 

 the convolutions of the trachea present as marked a 

 difference between this species and the whooper, as 

 between the latter and the domestic swan ; but a refer- 

 ence to Yarrell's illustrations, or an examination of the 

 two anatomical preparations, arranged with the swans in 

 the Norwich Museum"^ (British Bird series), and which 

 exhibit the differences in this respect between Cygnus 

 ferus and G. hewichi, will render it unnecessary for me to 

 give here any further description. The adult specimen 

 of Bewick's swan in the Norwich Museum is one of those 

 before referred to as killed at Bowthorpe, in 1855. 



At Blakeney, Mr. Dowell informs me, the gunners 

 have always distinguished this smaller species from the 

 whooper, under the name of " Spanish" swan. He killed 

 one with a small hand gun and a charge of number 

 seven shot, at Stiffkey freshes, on the 13th of March, 

 1848. 



wounded, and kept alive foar years in confinement, "had tbe 

 ridge in the upper mandible black from base to point, a small 

 patch of pale yellow, irregular in outline, appearing on the sides 

 only of that mandible about three lines frum the base." In four 

 specimens the yellow was differently distributed. 



* These preparations were made from examples of both species, 

 killed in this county during the winter of 1854-55, when I had 

 the opportunity of examining a good series in the flesh. 



1 



