156 HOOPEK. 



'puts us in mind of the solemn dirge of the dying Swan, 

 described by the ancient poets, and may possibly have given 

 rise to those accounts only by them it is made to be sung by 

 the dying bird.' This, however, as Aristotle says, 'makes not 

 a little but the whole difference,' and no such conclusion is 

 therefore to be drawn from it. 



The nest, which is of large size, as might naturally be 

 looked for, is made of reeds, rushes, and other water-plants, 

 and is lined with down, with which the eggs are also covered. 

 It is about a foot and a half in diameter, and is placed not 

 far from the water. It is begun to be made about the middle 

 of March, and is built on the ground in marshy places. 



The eggs are of a pale dull brownish white or pale greenish 

 white colour. They vary in number from five to seven. 



The female sits for forty-two days. She and her mate are 

 united, it is said, for life. They keep the place of their nest 

 free from intrusion, and resolutely repel its appropriation by 

 any but themselves. 



'No birds,' says Colonel Hawker, 'vary more in weight than 

 Hoopers. In the last winter, 1838, I killed them from thirteen 

 to twenty-one pounds.' No doubt, however he confounded this 

 species with the Bewick's Swan. Some weigh twenty-four 

 pounds. Length, four feet ten inches to five feet; the bill "is 

 black on the edges and the fore part slanting upwards and 

 backwards, the remainder, up to and round the eye, orange 

 yellow. It is without the knob seen in the other species. Iris, 

 brown ; the head and upper part of the neck are generally like 

 the rest of the plumage pure white, but often of a fine rufous 

 yellow colour, otherwise the crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, 

 breast, back, wings, which expand to the width of from seven 

 to eight feet, greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, second- 

 aries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, tail, 

 upper and under tail coverts, are pure white. Legs and toes, 

 greyish black; webs, greyish black. 



The young, which are not fully fledged for three months, 

 at first have the bill pale dull yellowish red, the tip and the 

 edges of the sides black. Head, crown, neck, and nape, pale 

 greyish brown; chin, throat, and breast above, pale greyish 

 brown; the latter on the lowest part paler. The legs are, at 

 first, pale yellowish grey red. 



At the moult at the end of their first year they begin to 

 assume the white plumage, which is complete by the same 

 period the following year. 



