AQUATIC FOWL. 133 



liabiting the Caspian Sea are said to reach a still greater size 

 The female is rather smaller than the male, her bill surmounted 

 with a smaller protuberance, and her neck more slender. When 

 first hatched, the young are of a dusky gray. 



The wild birds of this species are migratory ; they absent them- 

 selves in October, and return in March. The tame swans on our 

 waters thrive best by allowing them to remain on the water during 

 the winter. I would recommend their being pinioned, an operation 

 which I have frequently and successfully performed. The opera- 

 tion is simple : find the joint of the bastard wing, which usually 

 contains about five of the flight feathers ; introduce a sharp knife 

 between the joint, and take it clean off; or, if you have not suffi- 

 cient nerve to use the knife, take a broad, well-sharped chisel, in- 

 troduce it between the bones, at the joint, and, with one blow of 

 a mallet, you will separate it without injury, dividing the skin 

 with your knife. If you operate with violence and fracture the 

 bone, the chance is that mortification sets in, and destroys your 

 bird. Swans are abundant on the Thames; our beloved Queen, 

 Victoria, had, at the last swan voyage, 232 birds on that river; 

 the various companies have, likewise, their swans there, each 

 having their distinguishing marks. 



THE HOOPER, OR WHISTLING 8WAN, 



Differs in many important anatomical details, from the tame 

 swan ; is a native of nearly the whole of the northern hemisphere, 

 as far as Europe and Asia extend. It is a migratory bird, and 

 resides during the summer within the regions of the artic circle, 

 where it breeds in great numbers. It has been known to incubate 

 and rear its young in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. On the 

 approach of winter, this bird leaves the north for more southern 

 latitudes, visiting the British Islands, Holland, Germany, France, 

 and Italy, as far as northern Africa and Egypt. It travels with 

 rapidity, at a great elevation, their numbers forming the figure of 

 a wedge. The note while on the wing, is harsh, and resembles 

 the word hoop, repeated several times, but, from its elevation, has 

 rather a musical sound, as the trachea, or windpipe, is consider- 

 ably lengthened down the keel of the breast-bone. Wide morasses, 

 lakes, on the mouths of rivers, and inundated grounds, are the 

 abodes of this wary bird. 



On the approach of spring, such of them as have visited us, 

 collect and return to their breeding haunts in Norway, Iceland, 

 Lapland, Spitzbergen, and Siberia. The down of this species is 



i 



