404 BEWICKS SWAN. 



nine occurrences are recorded from Norway, though in Finland it is 

 rather more frequent. Its summer habitat is more easterly than 

 that of the Whooper, no nesting-places being known to the west of 

 the White Sea, and it was only near the mouth of the Petchora that 

 Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown obtained the first identified eggs 

 on record. On the Arctic portions of the mainland of Siberia and in 

 the islands to the north, it appears to be the most numerous of the 

 Swans ; Mr. Seebohm observed no other species on the Yenesei, and 

 its breeding-range probably extends to the Pacific. In the cold 

 season it visits Japan and China ; while in Europe it has occasionally 

 been found as far south as the Mediterranean. 



The nest resembles that of the Whooper, but the eggs are smaller 

 than those of that bird, and have rather less gloss : average measure- 

 ments 3 "9 by 2 "6 in. The note sounds like the word tong quickly 

 uttered, and is very different from the la/ioop, whoop-wJioop, 7vhoop of 

 the larger species. The food consists chiefly of aquatic plants. 



The adult is pure white; the irides dark; legs, toes and webs 

 black ; the distribution of black and orange-yellow on the beak is 

 shown in the illustration. The young bird is greyish-brown, but the 

 white plumage is acquired in the second winter, when the irides are 

 yellow. Length from 46-50 in. ; wing about 21 in. 



An immature Swan shot near Aldeburgh in October 1866, and 

 now in the Ipswich Museum, is, in the opinion of Professor Newton, 

 an example of the American Trumpeter Swan, C. biiccinalor, a larger 

 species than the Whooper, with a black bill. It has long been 

 naturalized in this country and has repeatedly hatched its young 

 in captivity, so there is always a strong probability of the cygnets 

 escaping before they can be pinioned. Another North-American 

 species which has been stated — but on far weaker evidence — to 

 have been found, at long intervals, in the shops of Edinburgh 

 poulterers, is C. americamis, a bird which is smaller than the 

 Whooper, though larger than Bewick's Swan, which it resembles in 

 having patches of small size at the base of the bill, but of a deep 

 orange-colour. In the adults of our Whooper and the American 

 Trumpeter Swan the loop of the trachea between the walls of the 

 keel takes a vertical direction, whereas in Bewick's Swan and in 

 C. ainericanus the bend is horizontal ; but in immature birds these 

 distinctions are less marked and are not absolutely invariable. 



