204 ANATIDJJ. 



the rest of the year. In disposition they are timid and 

 extremely gentle, and never attempt to molest any of the 

 wild-fowl confined in the same pond with them, though 

 all of these are their inferiors in strength and size. Their 

 call, chiefly uttered at the migratory period, is a low deep- 

 toned whistle, once repeated. On the water, the carriage 

 of the Cygnus Bewickii is intermediate in its character 

 between that of the Mute Swan and Common Goose ; but 

 if these birds exhibit not the grace and majesty of the 

 former on this element, they appear to much more advan- 

 tage on the land, where, by choice, they spend the greater 

 portion of their time. The stomach of a specimen exa- 

 mined by Mr. Thompson contained only minute seeds and 

 gravel. 



Young birds as they appear here in the plumage of their 

 first winter are greyish brown. At their second winter, 

 when they have acquired the white plumage, the irides are 

 orange; the head and breast strongly marked with rusty 

 red ; base of the beak lemon yellow ; when older, some 

 continue to exhibit a tinge of rust colour on the head, after 

 that on the breast has passed off. The adult bird is of a 

 pure unsullied white ; the base of the beak orange yellow ; 

 the irides dark ; the legs, toes, and membranes, black ; the 

 figure at the commencement of this subject shows the dis- 

 tribution of black and yellow on the beak, which is liable 

 to a little variation. 



The whole length is from three feet ten inches to four 

 feet two inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the 

 longest primary, twenty-one inches ; the second and third 

 quill-feathers longer than the first and fourth ; tail-feathers 

 twenty ; in young birds I have found but eighteen, and in 

 one instance nineteen. 



M. Temminck says this species breeds in Iceland in 

 May, and has been taken in the winter in Picardy. 



