SWANS. 



MUTE SWAN.— Plate 88. 5 feet All white; 

 black patcli between eye and base of bill, including 

 the swollen knob at base of upper mandible ; nostril 

 and tip of bill also black ; upper mandible reddish- 

 orange ; under mandible (little seen) black ; legs and 

 feet black. Resident. 



Eggs. — 3-5 at first, increasing to 10—12 as the 

 female bird develops, dull greenish-white ; 4'0 ^ 2*9 

 inches (plate 130). 



Nest. — A great pile of dead reeds, sloping at the 

 sides, and having the cup in the middle, placed on 

 a small island in a lake or among reeds. 



Distribution. — General throughout the British Isles. 



This is the Swan so well known in the domesticated 

 state ; but, as the wild bird breeds in many parts of 

 the Continent, some of those occurring in winter in 

 the British Islands are possibly migrants. All our 

 Swans being white, they are more easily to be dis- 

 tinguished by those parts that are not white — the 

 region between the eye and the base of the bill, 

 called the lores ; the swelling at the base of the upper 

 mandible, called the tubercle ; the bill itself, consisting 

 of upper and lower mandibles, and the nostrils, occur- 

 ring as apertures in the upper one ; and, finally, the 

 nail or front of the decurved tip of the upper man- 

 dible. The nest is a huge, mound-like structure of 

 reeds, bedded in the reedy shallows of large inland 



y 



