316 anatidj:. 



with analogous parts of the Whooper, pointing out the 

 anatomical distinctions between them ; and proposing to 

 consider the bird as a distinct species. Early in the follow- 

 ing December the Author was presented by Mr. J. B. Baker 

 with the sternum and trachea of a third example of this new 

 species, shot at Yarmouth during the winter of 1827-28. 

 During the severe weather of the same month, Wild Swans 

 were unusually numerous ; more than fifty were counted in 

 one flock at Whittlesea Mere. From a considerable number 

 which had been forwarded to the London markets for sale, 

 the Author selected five examples of this new species, of 

 diff"erent ages ; and, possessing thus a series of gradations 

 in structure, he described them in a paper read before the 

 Linnean Society, and proposed to call the species ' Bewick's 

 Swan ' ; thus devoting it to the memory of one whose 

 beautiful delineations of subjects in natural history entitled 

 him to this tribute. These Swans being plentiful, from the 

 severity of the winter, others were procured in difierent 

 parts of the country. The late Mr. Richard Win gate, of 

 Newcastle, who had also obtained specimens and observed 

 the difference between them and the Whooper, read a notice 

 upon the subject at the Natural History Society at Newcastle, 

 and as he was one of the oldest as well as one of the 

 warmest friends of Thomas Bewick, he adopted the name 

 the Author had proposed. 



This species is one-third smaller than the Whooper at the 

 same age ; and the yellow patch at the base of the bill is 

 noticeably difierent in its size and distribution. When the 

 external characters were made known, several museums and 

 collections in difi'erent parts of the country were found to con- 

 tain specimens ; and, in fact, subsequent experience has shown 

 that Bewick's Swan is a tolerably frequent visitor in severe 

 winters on the coasts of England and Scotland, although 

 decidedly rarer than the Whooper. In Ireland, however, as 

 expected by Thompson and shown by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey 

 and others, it is by far the more abundant species. Mr. R. 

 Warren writes that on the 17th of December, 1880, a herd, 

 numbering two hundred or two hundred and fifty, was seen 



