80 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



till '^ taken" up for fattening. Any such variation 

 is rarely met with, and all my enquiries have failed 

 to elicit a single instance of a white cygnet having 

 been hatched with others of a normal coloar. Such 

 a variety appears to be unknown, even by tradition, to 

 our local swanherds, a fact which seems to have an 

 important bearing upon the question of specific dif- 

 ference between the mute swan and the so-called 

 Polish or "changeless" swan, whose cygnets are said 

 to be always white. Yarrell, however, gives the grey 

 colour of the feet in Cygnus immutahilis as a specific 

 difference, but this can scarcely hold good as a point of 

 distinction, as the webs in the cygnets of the mute 

 swan are frequently grey instead of black, and I have 

 observed the same variation in birds which had acquired 

 their fall plumage. A pair of cygnets, hatched some 

 few years back on Surlingham Broad, had each the 

 lower mandible projecting beyond the upper, about 

 three-quarters of an inch, but this deformity in no way 

 interfered with their feeding, and they grew up as fine 

 and as weighty birds as any of their companions. 



Such cygnets as either elude the pursuit of the swan- 

 herds in August, or are intentionally left with their 

 parents, associate with the old ones throughout the 

 winter, but are invariably driven away to shift for them- 

 selves in the following February or March ; and these 

 cygnets then congregate in small parties, until their 

 pairing time arrives in the next season. On con- 

 tracted pieces of water the persecution of the young 

 birds by the old at this season is persistent, often 

 forcing them to take refuge on land ; but for this 

 Waterton adopted a simple and harmless remedy, viz., 

 cutting the webs of the old swans' feet so as to enable 

 the young to out-swim them when pursued. A very 

 curious incident, however, in connection with this habit 

 of the old swans, occurred in the spring of 1872, 



