4o6 MUTE SWAN. 



some of the lakes in Greece ; more abundantly in the vicinity of the 

 Black and Caspian Seas, and in Turkestan. In winter Mute Swans 

 occur on the waters of the greater part of Europe, down to the basin 

 of the Mediterranean, and are regular visitors to the lakes of Algeria 

 and Egypt. The range can be traced through Asia to Mongolia, 

 and down to the north-west of India. 



According to the late Mr. H. Stevenson, Swans pair for life, and 

 build a fresh nest each season ; this is generally on a small island 

 or peninsula, and is a large structure of reeds and coarse herbage. 

 The females do not lay till their second year— some not until the 

 third or fourth — and commence with 3-5 eggs, but when in their 

 prime the clutch sometimes consists of 10-12 ; they are dull greenish- 

 white, averaging 4 in. by 2-9 in. With wild birds incubation begins 

 in May, but earlier in a state of semi-domestication. The young are 

 hatched in 36-39 days and are carefully tended by their mother, 

 who frequently carries the cygnets on her back, to which she 

 sometimes raises them with her foot, at the same time sinking her 

 body low in the water. The food consists of water plants (such as 

 CJiara), aquatic insects &:c., also of grain and bread. The note of 

 the wild bird in pairing time is loud and trumpet-like, but in tame 

 individuals it is little more than a feeble hiss. 



The adult male has the greater part of the bill reddish-orange, 

 the nail, nostrils, lores, and the basal tubercle, or * berry,' black ; 

 plumage pure white; legs and feet black. Length 56-60 in. ; weight 

 about 30 lbs. The female is smaller and has far less tubercle. The 

 cygnet is sooty-grey above, and paler below, with lead-coloured bill 

 and legs. 



In the so-called ' Polish Swan,' C. immutabilis of Yarrell, the cygnets 

 are white, while the adult is said to have a less developed tubercle, 

 with ash-grey legs and feet ; but neither Mr. Bartlett nor I could 

 find these distinctions in old birds in the Zoological Gardens which 

 had been white as cygnets, and were considered typical examples 

 by Mr. J. H. Gurney. With the exception of a bird obtained in 

 Holland in December 1840, no specimen of the 'Polish Swan' is 

 known to exist outside the British Islands ; and it is now generally — 

 though not universally- — considered by ornithologists to be a mere 

 variety as regards the colour of the young, while the supposed 

 distinctions in the adult may depend upon the age of the bird. As 

 pointed out by Prof. Newton, white cygnets were noticed on the 

 Trent 200 years ago, while in 1885, 1886, and 1887 a pair of Swans 

 at Cambridge produced broods in which some of the young were 

 abnormally white (Zool. 1887, p. 463 ; 1888, p 470). 



