165 



POLISH SWAN. 



Cygnus immutabilis, YARRELL. 



CygnusA. Swan. Immutabilis Unchangeable. 



SEYEEAL flocks of these birds were observed in tbis country 

 in the beginning of the year 1838, during the severe weather 

 of that period. Of a flight of thirty, seen near Snodland, 

 on the Medway, in Kent, four were shot. One was procured 

 in Cambridgeshire, in the winter of 1840-41. In the summer 

 of the year 1844, Arthur Strickland, Esq. saw a flock off 

 Burlington Harbour. They were all white, and one of them 

 being obtained, and proving to be a young bird, its identity 

 with the changeless Swan is at once apparent. 



One was shot in the marshes near Horning, Norfolk, Mr. 

 M. C. Cooke informs me, on the 29th. of January, 1854. 

 Thirteen were seen at Ingoldisthorpe, near Lynn, and one of 

 them was shot, in December, 1851. Three are recorded in 

 the 'Naturalist,' vol. ii, page 132, as having been killed out 

 of a flock of nine, at the same place about the same time. 

 I conclude that they formed part of the same flock All 

 'Polish Refugees,' and probably from .Russia, the severity of 

 whose climate has been only in keeping with her customs 

 heretofore. 



This species is also tameable, and in confinement has been 

 known to pair with the Mute Swan. 



Male; length, four feet nine inches. The knob at the base 

 of the bill is small; the beak itself is reddish orange, except 

 the base and the edges, which are black; the tooth also 

 is black; iris, brown. Head, crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, 

 breast, and back, pure white. 



The wings have the second quill feather the longest. Greater 

 and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater 



