PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 175 



5. Food. Chiefly the succulent stalks, leaves, and buds of aquatic vegetation, 

 torn up from the bottom in shallow water, and no doubt also the larvae of aquatic 

 insects, worms, etc. Naumann also recognised among the remains of other water 

 plants Trifolium repens. Thompson found minute seeds and gravel in the stomach 

 of an Irish killed specimen. Grass no doubt also forms part of its diet. J. H. 

 Gurney found in a Norfolk killed bird, silt, pond grass, water insects' legs, and the 

 tail of a small fish. The young are accompanied and tended by both parents 

 (H. J. Pearson). [F. c. R. J.] 



MUTE-SWAN [Ctfgnus olor (Gmelin). Cob ($), pen (?), cygnet (juv.). 

 French, cygne ; German, Hocker-Schwan ; Italian, cigno reale]. 



1. Description. The mute -swan may at once be distinguished by the 

 fleshy excrescence the " berry " at the beak which is of a reddish orange, save the 

 nail, and the edges of the upper jaw, which are black : a broad black band extends 

 from the base of the beak backward to the lores, and upwards to embrace the 

 " berry," and the nostrils are marked by a black patch. The sexes are alike, but the 

 "berry "is smaller in the female. (PI. 155.) Length 60 in. [1524mm.]. The plumage 

 is white ; and the iris is dark brown, the legs and toes black. The juvenile plumage is 

 of a sooty grey, paler on the neck and under surface, while the beak and legs are 

 grey. The young in down are of an ash-grey colour, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. It is by no means easy to distinguish between the range 

 of wild birds of this species and those which were originally introduced and 

 have reverted to natural conditions. In the British Isles it is generally regarded 

 as semi-domesticated, but on the Continent it is said to breed ferally in Denmark, 

 Sweden, and North Germany, and certainly does so in the delta of the Danube, 

 while till recently it also bred in small numbers in Greece. In South Russia it 

 also nests in some numbers on the great rivers and lakes and in the Sea of Azoff 

 and the islands on the Caspian, ranging north to lat. 57. In Asia it is recorded as 

 breeding in Transcaspia, Persia (Seistan), the Tobolsk and Tomsk governments, 

 Turkestan, Mongolia, and Ussuria. On migration it has occurred on the southern 

 shores of the Mediterranean from Marocco to Egypt, and in Asia ranges south to 

 north-west India. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident in a semi-feral condition in nearly every part of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, but an increase has been observed in the south of 

 England in hard weather (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 341). As the species 



