MUTE SWAN. 215 



The author of the Journal of a Naturalist mentions 

 having seen more than forty at one time, on the great 

 swan-pool that some years ago existed near the city of 

 Lincoln, but has since been drained ; and the great swan- 

 nery of the Earl of Ilchester, at Abbotsbury, near the 

 coast in Dorsetshire, is well known. About eighty Swans 

 are there preserved, and as the cygnets are not caught to 

 be marked or pinioned, the interesting sight of several of 

 these fine large birds on the wing together is often wit- 

 nessed. The water is strictly watched and guarded, and 

 in the season is used as a decoy. 



The adult bird has the nail at the point of the beak, the 

 edge of the mandible on each side, the base, the lore to the 

 eye, the orifice of the nostrils and the tubercle, black ; the 

 rest of the beak reddish orange ; the irides brown ; the 

 head, neck, and all the plumage pure white ; the legs, toes, 

 and interdigital membranes black. 



The whole length of an old male is from four feet eight 

 inches, to five feet ; the weight about thirty pounds ; and 

 marked Swans have been known to live fifty years. The 

 male is distinguished from the female by being larger ; the 

 black tubercle at the base of the beak is also larger ; the 

 neck is thicker, and the bird swims higher out of the 

 water. The body of the female is smaller ; the neck more 

 slender, and she appears to swim deeper in the water. 

 This latter point is referable to a well-known anatomical 

 law, that females have less capacious lungs than males, and 

 her body therefore is less buoyant. 



The young Mute Swan, in July, has plumage of a 

 dark bluish grey, almost a sooty grey ; the neck, and the 

 under surface of the body rather lighter in colour ; the 

 beak lead colour ; the nostrils and the basal marginal line 

 black. The same birds, at the end of October, have the 

 beak of a light slate grey, tinged with green ; the irides 



