486 BRITISH BIRDS. 



from a herd of nine as they were swimming near the edge of a large lake. 

 He succeeded in stalking up to within thirty paces of them,, when they 

 caught the alarm, immediately swam close up together, pausing for a 

 moment to listen with upstretched necks. St. John describes the same 

 habit of the Hooper in the north of Scotland. 



The first identified eggs of Bewick's Swan were those obtained by 

 Harvie-Brown and myself in the delta of the Petchora. A Russian fisher- 

 man took the two eggs and trapped the bird on the nest. He sold us the 

 eggs, and we afterwards bought the bird from his mate to whom it had 

 fallen as his share of the plunder. 



I have never actually seen the nest of Bewick's Swan, but I have had it 

 described to me by four independent witnesses. The Russian fisherman 

 who obtained the eggs for us on the island of Pyonin, in the delta of the 



Oo / * 



Petchora ; Mr. Nummelin (whose portrait may be found in the ' Voyage of 

 the Vega/ i. p. 316), who got for me three eggs on the island of Brek- 

 offsky, in the delta of the Yenesay, and one from Tolstanos on the mainland ; 

 the Samoyade who collected for me at Golcheeka; and the German exile 

 Ulemann, who had lived many years at Vershinsky, and used to go down to 

 the delta of the Yenesay every summer to fish, and was, moreover, quite a 

 naturalist all assured me that Bewick's Swan built a nest in the same kind 

 of situation and of the same materials as the nests of the Hooper which I 

 had seen. The eggs are smaller than those of the Hooper, and are probably 

 the same in number, but I have never seen a larger clutch than three. 

 They do not differ from those of the Hooper in any other respect, unless, 

 perhaps, they may be slightly less glossy. They vary in length from 4'3 to 

 3*8 inch, and in breadth from 2'65 to 2 - 55 inch. (Dresser's alleged egg 

 measuring 3'3 inch by 2'4 inch is probably that of a Goose.) They may be 

 distinguished from eggs of the Hooper by their weight, details of which 

 may be found on page 482. 



The adult Bewick's Swan has the entire plumage pure white. Lores and 

 basal portion of the bill, but not extending below the nostrils, deep yellow, 

 remainder black; legs and feet dull black; irides hazel. Young in first 

 plumage resemble those of the Hooper. After the first moult, when they 

 are about a year old, they can only be distinguished from adults by the pale 

 colour of the basal portion of the bill. 



The Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator) has been added to the list of 

 British birds. Four examples are said to have been killed near Aldeburgh, 

 in Suffolk, in October 1866, but no evidence of any kind has been brought 

 forward to prove that they really belong to this species. On the contrary 

 the sternum of one of the four has authoritatively been pronounced to be 

 that of a Mute Swan, of which species they were all probably immature 

 examples. The Trumpeter Swan is an American bird, breeding in the 

 arctic regions of that continent and as far south as lat. 42. It may be 



