PLATE II 

 MUTE SWAN. Cygnus olor 



. //>ri/ 3O///, 1896. This nest is built by the tame Swans every year in a 

 great reed-bed near the Lake Hotel, on the Lake of Monteith. Unfortunately, 

 they do not choose a very safe place, as a rule, and the local boy can wade 

 out to it with ease, hence the eggs have a knack of disappearing most 

 in\ >teriously. 



The nest is an enormous structure, generally consisting of a cart-load of 

 dead reeds resting on the bottom ; a few reeds are usually stripped of their 

 leaves, and these, mixed with a little down, form the lining. When the female 

 leaves the nest for food the male usually takes her place, and they guard the 

 approach to the nest most carefully, driving off any Coot or Waterhen that 

 may come too near. 



\Yhen I photographed it there were four eggs in the nest, and the female 

 uas sitting on them ; she was so tame that I waded right up to the side of 

 the nest and put my arm under her to count the eggs, and she took hardly 

 any notice of me at all. Both birds take turns to swim over to the hotel in 

 the morning, where they are fed daily by the hotel-keeper's wife. 



VOL. ii. c 25 



