POLISH SWAN. 343 



The Author verified all Mr. Pelerin's observations. 



The Author heard of one Polish Swan said to have been 

 shot in Cambridgeshire, and now preserved in the Wisbeach 

 Museum ; but Mr. H. Stevenson believes that this bird was 

 really obtained in Norfolk in 1839. In a valuable paper in 

 anticipation of vol. iii. of his ' Birds of Norfolk,' he men- 

 tions eight more individuals obtained in various years in 

 that county ; but he considers that some, if not most, had 

 escaped from private waters. One out of two, shot in the 

 great Swan year, 1855, was examined and identified by the 

 Author. In February 1861 Mr. J. E. Harting examined a 

 bird, which he identified as a Polish Swan, hanging up in 

 Leadenhall Market. In the British Museum there is a 

 young male (by dissection) shot at Nairn, Scotland, on the 

 27th September, 1872, and presented by Lord Holmesdale. 

 Other examples have probably been obtained, but not dis- 

 tinguished ; and, in fact, the validity of the species is by no 

 means universally, or even generally, admitted. 



In spite of the statements of the dealers half a century 

 ago, as to the receipt of this bird ' from the Baltic,' Mr. 

 Dresser, writing in 1880, expressly states that he could 

 obtain no reliable information respecting the occurrence of 

 the Polish Swan on the Continent. Subsequently Dr. 

 Stejneger, in his important monograph of the Swans, already 

 mentioned, states that he has identified with this species 

 a bird of the year, in the Leiden Museum, killed on the 

 Haarlem Meer, in December 1840. This is the only Con- 

 tinental example of which even Dr. Stejneger has any 

 cognizance. He is, on the whole, inclined to believe in its 

 specific distinctness ; he also admits the validity of Cygnus 

 unicini, Hume, described from immature Swans shot in 

 January 1871 in north-western India; and Dr. Stejneger has 

 further bestowed the name of Cygnus pelzelnl on a knobless 

 Swan — one of three taken alive in March 1856 on Lake 

 Menzaleh, Egypt — which died in confinement at Vienna in 

 1857. In the absence of adequate materials, the Editor 

 is unable to follow or to pronounce an opinion upon these 

 subtleties of distinction. Even as regards the Polish Swan, 



