THE SWANS 187 



from the ground. Heinroth states, from observation of captive birds, 

 that the preliminaries to pairing in the whooper and Bewick's swan 

 are exactly similar to those already described as performed by the 

 mute-swan, but the two birds do not adopt the facing position 

 afterwards. The attitude of defiance assumed by the mute-swan is 

 also unknown, although whoopers are quarrelsome birds ; and when 

 their nesting-ground is invaded by another pair, they advance at once 

 to attack the strangers, the male leading and the female following 

 close behind. Slater describes how the intruders are ejected "after 

 a good deal of trumpeting and chasing and swaggering, which is most 

 amusing to watch." l In some particularly favoured spots two or three 

 nests may be found in tolerably close proximity, but this is unusual. 



The cygnets are covered with grey down, and are carefully tended 

 by both parents for about two months, when they are able to fly. 

 Even after this time the family is generally to be seen together, but in 

 August the old birds are in full moult and become restless and inclined 

 to leave their breeding-places for more retired spots, making their 

 way on foot and by swimming towards the big lakes and the sea-coast. 

 The whooper is a much better walker than the mute-swan and steps 

 briskly, lifting its feet high and making good progress, while the mute- 

 swan waddles slowly and awkwardly and is soon exhausted. Those 

 birds which breed on the lakes far inland remain till September, when 

 the young are capable of flight. At the end of September and in 

 October many leave the country, chiefly females and young birds, but 

 many old males winter in Iceland. On migration they are generally 

 seen in small parties flying with outstretched necks in a straggling 

 undulating line. When they alight after a long flight it is almost 

 always in the neighbourhood of fresh water, where they can wash, one 

 of their number acting as sentinel in the meantime. Large parties 

 adopt the wedge formation, an old bird always acting as leader. 



Much of what has been written above of the whooper is probably 

 equally true of the smaller species, Bewick's swan, which is oftener 



1 A Manual of the Birds of Iceland, p. 48. 



