MUTE SWAN. 327 



Denmark and the south of Sweden ; while hoth wild and 

 half-protected hirds are found in many parts of Germany. 

 Wild hirds nest in considerahle numbers in Central and 

 Southern Russia, and in the valley of the Lower Danube ; 

 also, sparingly, on some of the lakes in Greece ; more 

 abundantly in the vicinity of the Black Sea and the Caspian ; 

 and in Turkestan. In winter, wild birds occur from time to 

 time throughout the greater part of Europe down to the 

 basin of the Mediterranean ; and the lakes of Algeria and 

 Egypt are frequently visited by them. The range of this 

 species can be traced to south-eastern Siberia, and to the 

 north-west of India. 



Swans, it is said, were first brought into England from 

 Cyprus, by Richard I., who began his reign in 1189; and 

 they are particularly mentioned in a MS. of the time of 

 Edward I. (1272). Paulus Jovius (1543) says that he never 

 saw a river so thickly covered with Swans as the Thames ; 

 Turner notices the Swan with the black tubercle on the beak, 

 in his ' Avium Historia,' published in 1544 ; and Sibbald 

 (1684), includes it in his Fauna of Scotland. In 1625, John 

 Taylor, the water-poet, made a voyage in his wherry from 

 London to Christchurch, and thence up the Avon to Salis- 

 bury, to ascertain if there were any impediments to naviga- 

 tion ; and "as I passed up the Avon," he tells us, "at the 

 least 2,000 Swans, like so many pilots, swam in the deepest 

 places before me, and showed me the way." 



The author of the * Journal of a Naturalist ' mentions 

 having seen more than forty at one time, on the great 

 swan-pool formerl}' existing near the city of Lincoln. The 

 swannery of the Earl of Ilchester, at Abbotsbury, near Wey- 

 mouth, in Dorsetshire, is well known, and is the largest in 

 the kingdom ; the Rev. A. C. Smith speaks of seven hundred 

 on the occasion of his visit (Zool. 1877, p. 305) ; and Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney says that when he was there in the following 

 April he was informed by the ancient swanherd that the 

 number was then fully thirteen hundred (Zool. 1878, p. 208). 

 In August 1883, when Mr. Cecil Smith was there, the 

 number had sadly fallen off; but at Weymouth there were 



