ANSERINE. CYGNUS. 



157 



lar form on the sides of the upper mandible to beyond the 

 nostrils ; feet black ; plumage pure white, the head tinged 

 with orange-red. Female similar, but considerably smaller. 

 Young with the bill dusky at the end, reddish toward the 

 base, the partially bare skin at its base flesh-colour ; the feet 

 reddish-grey ; the plumage pale bluish-grey. 



Male, 60, 95, 25,f, 3-J, 4 T 3 , T T , 1 T V 



This, the common Wild Swan, arrives in Britain in the 

 end of autumn, and departs in April. It is said to breed in 

 the more northern regions of Europe and Asia ; but does not 

 occur in America. In severe weather it is often met with 

 in great numbers on our estuaries, as well as inland. Its 

 food consists chiefly of slender fleshy roots and stems of aqua- 

 tic plants, often of Zostera marina. The oesophagus thirty 

 inches long ; stomach transversely elliptical, five inches in 

 breadth ; intestine thirteen feet long ; coeca thirteen inches 

 and a half ; rectum ten. The trachea enters the crest of the 

 sternum to the depth of three or four inches ; the lower la- 

 rynx, extremely compressed, an inch and two-twelfths in 

 height, only two-twelfths in breadth, lies on the anterior 

 edge of the sternum ; the bronchi four inches long. 



Anas Cygnus ferus, Linn. Syst. Nat, i. 194. Anas Cyg- 

 nus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 833. Anas Cygnus, Temm. Man. 

 d'Ornith. ii. 828. Cygnus musicus, Whooping Swan, Mac- 

 Gillivray, Brit. Birds, v. 



241. CYGNUS AMERICANUS. AMERICAN SWAN. 



Adult male about fifty-four inches long, eighty-five in ex- 

 tent of wings; bill from the joint to the tip of the upper 

 mandible three inches and four- twelfths, its greatest width 

 near the end an inch and a quarter ; from the eye to the tip of 

 the bill four inches and nine-twelfths; tarsus four inches; 

 middle toe four inches and three-fourths, its claw ten-twelfths ; 

 tail of twenty feathers, moderately rounded ; bill and bare 

 space on the fore part of the head black, with an oblong 

 orange patch, never more than an inch in length, between 

 the eye and the base of the bill ; feet black ; plumage pure 

 white, the head tinged with orange-red. Female similar to 

 the male, but considerably smaller. Young at first with the 

 bill reddish-white, brown at the end ; the feet light grey ; 

 the plumage of a deep leaden tint ; in winter with the bill 

 flesh-coloured, dusky toward the end; the feet dusky, the 

 plumage light bluish-grey ; the upper part of the head dusky- 



