THE WILD SWAN 309 



feeding -ground they touch that is to say, a region 

 where " slob lands," shallow lochs, and tidal flats 

 are rarely or never frozen up. But Bewick's swan 

 comes from the north-east of Europe, possibly 

 Siberia, and the great bulk of them prefer to 

 pass right over the eligible places of the" Scottish 

 east coast, and take up feeding quarters on the 

 west. This is one of the preferences which, so 

 far, no fellow has been able to understand. 



The whooper, as I have said, is at home in 

 Iceland, and thither in March or April our winter 

 visitants proceed, and join in great flocks with 

 those which have passed the winter on the open 

 waters of the coast. Like Finland, Iceland is 

 admirably suited to a bird with the peculiar habits 

 of the swan. Every pair want a loch to them- 

 selves, and in both these countries the lochs, or, 

 as they would be called in the Highlands, lochans, 

 are almost without number. The swans build their 

 nests on a small island, or, if there is no island, 

 on a spit of land or a part of the loch-shore which 

 is sufficiently marshy to be difficult of approach, 

 there piling up a platform of the twigs of the 

 willow and scrub birch, intermingled with moss 

 and grass. A pair return to the same nest year 

 after year, and if any interloper has tried to take 

 possession will fight for their property. When the 

 question of ownership is determined the pair set 

 about furbishing up the old nest, which in this 

 way grows in size from year to year, till at last the 

 mass becomes of considerable dimensions, and two 

 or three feet in height. On the top of this, on a 

 fresh layer of moss, the eggs are deposited, rxot 



