ANATID.E. 401 



THE WHOOPER. 



Cygnus iMUSicus, Bechstein. 



This species is also called the Whistling Swan, both names refer- 

 ring to the peculiarity of its note ; while by way of distinguishing it 

 from its larger domesticated congener the prefix ' Wild ' is frequently 

 employed. Little more than a century ago this fine bird used to 

 nest in the Orkneys, but at the present day there is no part of 

 the British Islands to which it is more than a migrant during the 

 cold season. In numbers which vary according to the mildness or 

 severity of the weather prevalent in Northern Europe, it annually 

 visits the coasts and islands of Scotland from November onwards, 

 and on the return passage in spring individuals out of passing flocks 

 have been observed to linger until May about the old breeding- 

 haunts. In hard frosts Whoopers are often abundant on the shores 

 of England as far south as the Channel, where Poole Harbour and 

 other suitable localities are favourite resorts. On the coast of Ireland, 

 according to Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, it is far less common than 

 the smaller Bewick's Swan, and he has seldom met with a dozen of 

 the former together, whereas the latter are sometimes seen there in 

 hundreds. 



The Whooper is now only a visitor to the Faeroes, but is gener- 

 ally distributed during the breeding-season in Iceland ; and thence, 



I I 



