190 ANATHLE. 



in a north-eastern direction they are reported to be very 

 numerous, but I did not fall in with any during my stay in 

 Lapland." 



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. Castang, 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 again during this last season. A curious occurrence 

 took place in reference to the brood of 1839. 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 buffettings and resistance, 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 



