310 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^l. Genus CYGNUS. 



Subfamily CYGNIN&. 



MUTE SWAN. 

 CYGNUS OLOR (Gmelin). 



Anas olor, Gmelin, Syst. Nat i. p. 501 (1788). 



Cygnus olor (Gmel.), Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ix. p. 37 (1817) ; Dresser, B. Eur. 



vi. p. 419, pi. 418 (1880) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 324 (1885) ; Seebohm, 



Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 476 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 222 (1893) ; 



Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 38 (1895) ; Seebohm, Col Fig. Eggs Brit. B. 



p. 28, pi. 7 (1896) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 254 (1896) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. 



Brit. B. pt. xxxv. (1897). 



Geographical distribution. British: Whether the Mute Swan was 

 introduced into the British Islands (as some writers affirm it was by Eichard I. 

 from Cyprus) or not is a question somewhat difficult to decide. It is rather 

 remarkable that such an explanation should ever have been put forward, for there 

 is nothing extraordinary in a bird which, in a wild state, is a regular summer 

 visitor to Denmark and North Germany, extending its migrations to our Islands. 

 Its exceeding beauty and gracefulness probably led very early in the history of 

 our civilisation to its domestication, which has finally brought it to its present 

 condition of a semi-wild resident species. It is to be met with more or less 

 abundantly throughout the United Kingdom, wherever man affords it protection, 

 some of the Swanneries being very ancient and extensive. Foreign : Western 

 Palsearctic region ; occasionally in the extreme north-west of the Oriental region 

 during winter. It breeds in South Sweden (but is an accidental visitor only to 

 Norway), Denmark, Germany west of the Rhine, Central and South Russia, the 

 valley of the Danube, Transylvania and Greece, Turkestan and Mongolia. It 

 occasionally wanders into Dauria and to North-west India during the cold season. 

 In the basin of the Mediterranean, and throughout most of Europe south of the 

 above limits, it is best known as a winter visitor, and during that season it is also 

 found in the southern districts of the Caspian. 



Allied forms. None of sufficient propinquity to demand notice. In 1838 

 Yarrell described a Swan under the name of Cygnus immutabilis (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1838, p. 19). It was said to differ from the Mute Swan in having the 

 tubercle at the base of the upper mandible smaller, the legs lead colour instead 

 of black. A further specific distinction was that the young birds had a paler 



