POLISH SWAN. 227 



obtained. The specimen I exhibited, by permission, at the 

 evening meeting of the Zoological Society, belonged to the 

 Rev. L. B. Larking, of Ryarsh Vicarage, near Maidstone, 

 for whom it had been preserved by Mr. Leadbeater. It was 

 one of four, shot on the Medway, near Snodland Church, 

 where a flock of thirty, and several smaller flocks were seen. 



The circumstance of these flocks being seen, without any 

 observable difference in the specimens obtained, all of 

 which were distinct from our Mute Swan ; the fact, 

 also, that the cygnets, as far as observed, were of a 

 pure white colour, like the parent birds, and did not 

 assume, at any age, the grey colour borne for the greater 

 part of the first two years by the young of the other 

 species of Swans ; and an anatomical distinction in the 

 form of the cranium, to be hereafter noticed, which 

 was described by Mr. Pelerin, in the Magazine of 

 Natural History, induced me to consider this Swan en- 

 titled to rank as a distinct species, and, in reference to the 

 unchangeable colour of the plumage, I proposed for it the 

 name of Cygnus immutabilis. 



I have very recently been favoured with a letter from 

 the Earl of Derby, who some years since purchased a 

 pair of Polish Swans in London, and sent them to 

 Knowsley. The female in this instance also, unfortu- 

 nately, died. The male paired with a Mute Swan, and a 

 brood was produced. A Polish Swan has also paired with 

 a Mute Swan on the waters in the Phoenix Park devoted 

 to the use of the Dublin Zoological Society. I was told 

 by an excellent naturalist who has very recently seen these 

 birds, that he was satisfied of the distinction between them 

 on seeing them side by side. 



I have heard of one Polish Swan shot in Cambridgeshire, 

 and now preserved in the Wisbeach Museum ; and another 



Q 2 



