160 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



179. MUTE SWAN. 



Cygnus olor. 



This bird, which is generally known as the Tame 

 or Common Swan, requires little description at my 

 hands. I am not aware of the existence of what 

 could justly be termed a ' Swannery ' in our county, 

 though a few pairs of Swans are kept upon many of 

 our larger sheets of water and on ornamental ponds, 

 but at Lilford we are annually visited by a few of 

 these birds at various seasons ; these visitors are, for 

 the most part, as wary as any genuinely wild fowl, 

 and I cannot see any reason why they should not 

 possess a just claim to that title, as this species 

 breeds "in a perfectly wild state " in Denmark and 

 the south of Sweden, although I am perfectly willing 

 to admit that the probability of their being English 

 bred is greater than that of their foreign extraction ; 

 this, however, is a matter of very small importance, 

 as the Mute Swan has at all events as good a claim 

 to rank as a British bird as the Pheasant or the Red- 

 legged Partridge. The habits of this bird are 

 probably well-known to all my readers, so I will only 

 point out the constant differences by which the Mute 

 Swan may be distinguished from the Whooper and 

 Bewick's Swan : in the adult of the present species 

 the black knob or tubercle at the base of the bill, the 

 orange-red of that implement, Avith its black edges 

 and terminal nail, at once distinguish it from the two 

 other British Swans, which have no tubercle, and 

 whose bills are usually brilliant lemon-yellow and 

 black. In the immature Whooper the bill is of a dull 

 pinkish white, in the Mute Swan of a greenish grey. 



