BEWICK^S SWAN. 319 



Thompson states, that a wounded Bewick's Swan, presented 

 to the Zoological Society of Dublin in 1841, was still living 

 there in 1849, and had coupled on two successive seasons 

 with a Black Swan, but there was no produce. Mr. Sclater 

 says (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 507), that so far as he is aware 

 Bewick's Swan has never bred in captivity. Two live birds 

 were in the Knowsley sale in 1851.* 



Young birds as they appear here in the plumage of their 

 first winter are greyish-brown. At their second winter, 

 when they have acquired the white plumage, the irides are 

 orange ; the head and breast strongly marked with rusty- 

 red f ; base of the beak lemon-yellow ; when older, some 

 continue to exhibit a tinge of rust-colour on the head, after 

 that on the breast has passed off. The adult bird is of a 

 pure unsullied white, the base of the beak orange-yellow ; 

 the irides dark ; the legs, toes, and membranes, black ; the 

 figure at the commencement of this subject shows the dis- 

 tribution of black and yellow on the beak, which is liable to 

 a little variation. 



The whole length is from three feet ten inches to four 

 feet two inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the 

 longest primary, twenty-one inches ; the second and third 

 quill-feathers longer than the first and fourth ; tail-feathers 

 normally twenty, but in young birds sometimes eighteen or 

 nineteen. 



In anatomical structure this species differs more decidedly 



* It would be interesting to know what became of these two Bewick Swans, 

 and whether they formed a xiair, for the following reason : — In May 1853, the 

 Editor examined a Bewick's Swan in Leadenhall Market, with two eggs said to 

 belong to it, and he purchased the unblown eggs for half-a-crown a piece. The 

 dealer refused another half-crown for the head of the Swan for the purposes of 

 identification, insisting upon nothing less than ten shillings for the entire bird, 

 an additional expenditure which the state of the Editor's finances in those youth- 

 ful days did not justify. The eggs correspond in appearance and measurements 

 with those obtained by Mr. Seebohm ; and there can be little doubt that the 

 Swan had been killed on her nest by some poacher in a park or estate, probably 

 at no great distance from London. 



+ This rust-colour, which has been much insisted upon, is found on many 

 birds, especially waterfowl, and is known to be due, in their case, to the presence 

 of peroxide of iron in the water which they frequent. — [Ed.] 



