172 THE SWANS 



said to breed in Turkestan, the Tobolsk and Tomsk governments, Northern Siberia 

 south of the Arctic Circle, and east to Kamtschatka and Ussuria. On migration 

 it visits the Faeroes, the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas, and continental 

 Europe south to the Mediterranean and North African coasts and the Black Sea ; 

 in Asia ranging south to Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia, Central Asia, the Punjab, 

 Sind, and once in Nepal, China, Japan, Saghalien and the Commander Islands, and 

 occurs casually in East Greenland. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor from Northern Europe, occurring annually 

 on the Scottish coasts from October or November onwards, and sometimes lingering 

 till May, although no longer a British breeding species. Mr. Eagle Clarke gives 

 21st October to 14th November as the usual date of arrival, and 6th October as an 

 early record (cf. Studies in Bird Migration, 1912, vol. i. p. 160). The numbers that 

 visit us vary greatly with the season, and it is chiefly in hard winters that the 

 whooper occurs on the English coasts, being then recorded even from the south 

 coast. It has occurred in Yorkshire as early as 19th October, but is most common 

 in January and February: 1829, 1838, 1865, 1871, 1894-95 are years in which it was 

 especially abundant, and in 1880 a flock of at least one thousand birds was recorded 

 (cf. Nelson, B. of Tories., 1907, p. 428). It occurs irregularly on the coasts and 

 marshes of Kent (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 338), and it is not uncommon on 

 the coasts of North Wales, although rarer inland (cf. Forrest, Fauna N. Wales, 1907, 

 p. 272). In Ireland the whooper occurs irregularly in all parts, but mainly in the 

 north-west (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 184). It is not always 

 possible to distinguish between this species and Bewick's swan in the various reports, 

 but in Ireland the whooper is supposed to be outnumbered by about twenty-five 

 to one (cf. Ussher and Warren, loc. cit.), and in the south-west of Scotland it is 

 believed to be the less regular visitor of the two (cf. Gladstone, B. of Dumfries., 

 1910, p. 255). A gregarious migrant, which travels both by day and by night ; 

 it has been observed passing over the city of Dublin at night (cf. Patten, Aquatic 

 Birds of Great Britain and Ireland, 1906, p. 79). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. 1 The nest is placed in Iceland nearly always on an 

 islet, rarely on a spit of land or in a secluded bit of marsh among the hills. In 

 North Russia it is often found in the willow swamps of the deltas of the great 

 rivers. In shape it is conical, with a hollow at the top to hold the eggs, and is 

 built of tufts of grass, turf, moss, vegetable rubbish, and in some cases a few twigs 



1 Pinioned birds of this species bred in the Shetlands in 1910, and it seems possible that it 

 might be re-established as a breeding species if protected. 



