10 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
male. in the young bird there is at first hardly any 
knob to the bill, the ground-colour of which is dark grey, 
while the bird is in the sooty brownish grey plumage of 
the first autumn ; as the plumage becomes white, the bill 
turns to a lighter grey tinged with green, and before the 
close of the second year, at which time the bird has 
become white, the grey tint of the beak has given place 
to a pinkish flesh-colour, which, in the following 
spring, darkens into the full orange-red. Face-skin 
always black. Nostrils nearer root of bill than tip. 
In the variety known as the Polish Swan, which is 
either a case of albinism or of precocious maturity, the 
plumage being white or nearly so from the first, the bill 
is pale purplish pink in the young, not grey. This looks 
as if precocity were the true explanation. 
The Mute Swan inhabits the greater part of Europe, 
Northern and Central Asia, migrating south to some 
extent in winter, when it visits Northern Africa 
regularly, and India occasionally. Twice, however, these 
birds have been killed near Peshawar, a good locality 
for Swans, in June and July. This Swan is one of 
the most familiar ornamental birds in Europe, and as 
it is only semi-domesticated, often looking after itself 
entirely, it frequently, when left unpinioned, takes wing ; 
and hence the natural limits of the wild birds in Europe 
are rather difficult to settle with accuracy. It is said to 
have been introduced into England by Richard Cceur- 
de-Lion, that country not being part of its natural 
range. This swan lays—according to the age of the 
female—from five to eight eggs, which are greenish grey 
in colour. 
Swans are often imported into India and command a 
high price; possibly the summer-killed Indian bird 
above alluded to were only ‘“‘escapes’’ after all.* 
* The Black Swan of Australia (Chenopis atratus) has been, however, 
far more numerously brought over, and as it has bred in this country, 
and escaped, is not unlikely to occur wild. Its black plumage, with 
white quills and red bill, willof course at once distinguish it from all 
Indian wild-fowl, 
