194 ANATIIXaS. 



Bechstein says that in Russia the Hooper is more fre- 

 quently domesticated than the Mute Swan. A pinioned 

 female, in the possession of Montagu, laid an egg. Several 

 years ago I had an opportunity of seeing ten or twelve 

 Hoopers in a stable in London. These fine birds had 

 been procured by Mr. Casfctng, the well-known dealer in 

 birds, for the late Earl of Egremont, and the Swans were 

 shortly afterwards sent to Petworth, where, it was said, 

 they produced their young. At the time I saw these 

 birds, I also heard the voice of one of them, a very old and 

 large male. His note resembled the sound of the word 

 " hoop," repeating it loudly ten or twelve times in succes- 

 sion. At the Gardens of the Zoological Society a pair of 

 Hoopers bred on one of the islands in the summer of 1839, 

 and a curious occurrence took place in reference to the 

 brood. The cygnets, when only a few days old, were 

 sunning themselves on the margin of one of the islands, 

 close to the deep water. The parent birds were swimming 

 near. A Carrion Crow made a descent and struck at one 

 of the cygnets ; the old male Hooper came to the rescue 

 in an instant, seized the Crow with his beak, pulled him 

 into the water, and in spite of all his bufferings and re- 

 sistance, held him there till he was dead. They make a 

 large nest of rushes and coarse herbage ; the egg is of a 

 uniform pale brownish white, and measures four inches 

 one line in length, by two inches eight lines in breadth : 

 incubation lasts forty-two days ; the birds feed on grasses, 

 weeds, roots, and seeds of plants. In the eastern part of 

 Europe, the Hooper ranges from the lakes of Siberia and 

 Tartary in summer to the Caspian Sea in winter. M. Me- 

 netries says that it is seen at Bakou in January and Feb- 

 ruary. 



The Hooper may be immediately distinguished from 

 other species among the Swans, by the characters to be 



