ANATIDA, A73 
The nest is usually constructed amongst reeds 
and rushes on some swampy ground near the margin 
of, or on some island in, the river or pond inhabited 
by the birds: it is a large clumsy structure of flags 
and rushes. If there is any chance of the water 
rising, and the nest being flooded after the female 
has begun to sit, the male brings fresh materials, 
which the female works in under the eggs until they 
are comparatively out of danger. 
The adult Mute Swan has the nail, the edges of 
the mandible, the base of the beak, the lore and 
a knob which arises immediately below the forehead, 
black; the rest of the beak reddish orange; the 
irides brown; the whole of the plumage pure white ; 
the legs, toes and webs black. ‘The young birds of 
the year by the end of October have “‘ the beak of a 
hight slate-grey, tinged with green; the irides dark ; 
the head, neck and all the upper surface of the body 
nearly uniform sooty greyish brown; the under sur- 
face is also uniform, but of a lighter shade of greyish 
brown. After the second autumn moult but little 
of the grey plumage remains. When two years old 
they are quite white, and breed in their third year.” 
Captain Hadfield, in a note in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 
1866, bears out the statement of Yarrell that the 
Swan acquires its white plumage when two years 
old, but he says it is not perfectly matured till 
the third year, the beak of the Cygnet from which 
he made his observation, in the October of its second 
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