ANATID^E. 473 



The nest is usually constructed amongst reeds 

 and rushes on some swampy ground near the margin 

 of, or on some island in, the river or pond inhabited 

 by the birds : it is a large clumsy structure of flags 

 and rushes. If there is any chance of the water 

 rising, and the nest being flooded after the female 

 has begun to sit, the male brings fresh materials, 

 which the female works in under the eggs until they 

 are comparatively out of danger. 



The adult Mute Swan has the nail, the edges of 

 the mandible, the base of the beak, the lore and 

 a knob which arises immediately below the forehead, 

 black; the rest of the beak reddish orange; the 

 irides brown ; the whole of the plumage pure white ; 

 the legs, toes and webs black. The young birds of 

 the year by the end of October have " the beak of a 

 light slate-grey, tinged with green ; the irides dark ; 

 the head, neck and all the upper surface of the body 

 nearly uniform sooty greyish brown ; the under sur- 

 face is also uniform, but of a lighter shade of greyish 

 brown. After the second autumn moult but little 

 of the grey plumage remains. When two years old 

 they are quite white, and breed in their third year."' 

 Captain Hadfield, in a note in the 'Zoologist' for 

 1866, bears out the statement of Yarrell that the 

 Swan acquires its white plumage when two j'ears 

 old, but he says it is not perfectly matured till 

 the third year, the beak of the Cygnet from which 

 he made his observation, in the October of its second 



2 s 3 



