BEWICK’S SWAN 183 
Swans, like wild Geese, are in the habit of returning every year 
to the same district of country, and in passing to and from their 
feeding-ground keep closely to the same line of flight, a peculiarity 
of which fowlers take advantage by lying in ambuscade somewhere 
beneath their aérial road. 
When disturbed on the water they generally huddle together 
and utter a low cry of alarm before they take flight. Owing to 
their great weight. they have not the power of rising suddenly into 
the air, but flap along the water, beating the surface with their 
great wings, some twenty or thirty yards. The flapping noise 
made while this process is going on, may be heard at a great 
distance. 
In severe winters, flocks of Whoopers, Whistling Swans, or Elks, 
as they are variously called, come farther south, and may be 
observed from time to time on different parts of the coast. 
BEWICK’S SWAN 
CYGNUS BEWICKI 
Whole plumage pure white; bill black, orange-yellow at the base; irides 
dark ; feet black ; tailof eighteen feathers. Young birds greyish brown ; 
immature specimens tinged on the head and belly with rust-red. Length 
three feet nine inches ; breadth forty-six to fifty. Eggs dull white, tinged 
with brown. 
BEwIck’s Swan is distinguished from the Whooper, not only by 
the characters given above, but by strongly marked anatomical 
features, which were first pointed out by Mr. Yarrell, who, with 
the modesty and generosity for which he was noted, gave it its 
present name; ‘Thus devoting it to the memory of one whose 
beautiful and animated delineations of subjects in natural history 
entitle him to this tribute.’ 
In severe winters it is fairly frequent on the coasts of England, 
and even abundant in Scotland. In the case of distant flocks the 
only criterion is size; and as this species is one-third less than the 
Whooper, there is little probability of an experienced observer 
being mistaken in the identity. 
In their habits they closely resemble their congeners, but are 
less graceful in their movements on the water, and spend a larger 
portion of their time on land. 
