312 ANATIDJ;. 



on one of the islands in the summer of 1839, and a curious 

 occurrence took place in reference to the brood. The cygnets, 

 when onlj a few days old, were sunning themselves on the 

 margin of one of the islands, close to the deep water. The 

 parent birds were swimming near. A Carrion Crow made a 

 descent and struck at one of the cygnets ; the old male 

 Whooper came to the rescue in an instant, seized the Crow 

 with his beak, pulled him into the water, and in spite of all 

 his buffetings and resistance, held him there till he was 

 dead. 



Cuvier gives full particulars of the hybrid offspring result- 

 ing from the union of a male Whooper with a female domestic 

 Goose described as * une jeune oie monstrueuse nee au prin- 

 temps avec trois pates ' [sic] (Ann. Mus.Hist.Nat.xii.p.ll9). 



The Whooper may be immediately distinguished from 

 other species among the Swans, by the characters to be 

 observed about the head. Willughby, besides giving a 

 figure of the whole bird, introduced in addition the head 

 only, of larger size, to show the specific peculiarity. 

 Edwards gave the head of our Mute Swan on the same plate 

 with his figure of the Whooper, to show the distinction. 

 This plan of engraving the heads only, has been adopted 

 with excellent efi"ect by Col. Hawker, in his very popular 

 work, and the Author has followed his example of giving the 

 head only, of large size, rather than give repetitions of 

 similar white bodies. The first here introduced is the head 

 of the adult Whooper. The anterior part of the beak is 

 depressed and black ; the posterior or basal part quad- 

 rangular and yellow ; this latter colour extending consider- 

 ably forward along each lateral margin of the upper mandible, 

 beyond the openings of the nostrils, which are black ; the 

 lore, or bare space between the base of the upper mandible 

 and the eye, is also yellow : the irides dark ; the head, 

 neck, and the whole of the plumage of the body and wings 

 in adult birds, pure white ; some specimens, occasionally 

 only, exhibiting a rufous or ochreous tint at the tips of the 

 feathers on the head ; the legs, toes, and their membranes 

 black. 



