BEWICK'S SWAN. 337 



BEWICK'S SWAN. 



Oygnus hewicki. 



This Swan was first distinguislied from the Whooper by the 

 late Mr. Yarrell and Mr. Wingate^ who obser^^ed about the 

 same time that there was a great difference in tne form of 

 the trachea ; and the latter, being a great friend of Thomas 

 Bewick, adopted the name Bewicki, which Mr. iTarrell had 

 proposed for it. It is much smaller and somewhat rarer 

 than the Whooper, which, in its general habits, it much 

 resembles, and, like it, only appears on our coast in severe 

 winters. 



Mr. Dennis informs me by letter that a Bewick's Swan 

 was shot at Cuckmere Ferry, near Seaford. It had been 

 previously wounded in the wing, close to the body, and came 

 in from the sea, alone ; its gizzard contained fine gravel, and 

 a blackish substance of which he could not ascertain the 

 nature. Mr. Pratt informs me that a Bewick's Swan was 

 shot at Shoreham, and sent to him for preservation, in 

 October 1861. Mr. Booth, in his ' Hough Notes,' states 

 that he shot one of this species near Rye, in the winter of 

 1860 ; and in January 1871 fired at one close over his head f 

 but, having only a charge of No. 10 shot in his gun, it passed 

 on apparently uninjured. Mr. Jeffery, in his p. n., states 

 that one was shot near Brighton in December 1879, and 

 preserved for the Chichester Museum. The nest was 

 unknown till discovered by Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie- 

 Browu in the Lower Petchora, in 1875 (see ^Ibis,^ 1876, 

 pp. 438-441). 



