. 



76 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



namely, the orange or ferruginous tint that pervades, 

 more or less, the head and neck of most individuals, 

 but is confined to the tips of the feathers only. As to 

 the cause of this very localised colouring, naturalists 

 have long been divided in opinion, some regarding it as 

 a natural effect, intensified by age, others as simply an 

 artificial stain, acquired in the act of feeding, by contact 

 with ferruginous sands and the roots of aquatic plants 

 similarly impregnated. My own opinion, from such ob- 

 servations as I have been able to make, has always 

 inclined to the latter theory, and such is, I find, the 

 belief of the swanherds on the Tare, who maintain that 

 the swans in the river become red, more or less, during 

 autumn and winter, owing to the soil washed down from 

 the uplands into the dykes connected with the main 

 stream. That it is not a matter of age seems evident 

 from the fact that birds only two or three years old, 

 brought from Blickling and other inland waters to Sur- 

 lingham and Rockland have in some instances redder 

 heads than the oldest swans on these broads, whilst the 

 same birds are said to become gradually less rufous 

 in their new quarters, and to lose it altogether at their 

 autumn moult. In the spring of 1870 I saw a three year 

 old swan on Surlingham Broad, which had decidedly 

 more red on the head than others in the same locality, 

 known to be from eight to ten years old. Swans 

 kept upon private waters, or frequenting throughout 

 the y6ar some inland stream having a strong ferru- 

 ginous deposit, would naturally appear to retain this 

 colouring as a permanent feature, inasmuch as even 

 during the process of moulting, the new feathers would 

 become tinged ; whilst, on the other hand, the birds that 

 pass their nesting season on the broads, and are sub- 

 jected to no such influences, become pure white at the 

 moult, however much their heads may have been pre- 

 viously reddened. Perpetual contact, therefore, with 



