174 The Goose-like Birds 



and one half feet long and with a spread of wings of about seven feet. The 

 bill and lores are black, the latter marked with a yellow spot before the eyes, 

 thus distinguishing it from the Trumpeter. Of the notes of this species, Dr. 

 Brewer says: "It usually arrives at its regular feeding grounds at night, and 

 signalizes its coming by loud and vociferous screaming, with which the shores 

 ring for several hours. . . . When feeding, or dressing their plumage, this Swan 

 is usually very noisy, and at night these clamors may be heard to a distance of 

 several miles. Their notes are varied, some resembling the lower ones made 

 by the common tin horn, others running through the various modulations of 

 the notes of the clarionet. These differences are presumed to be dependent 

 upon age." During the summer this bird may be found rearing its young on 

 the shores of the Arctic Ocean, where Mr. MacFarlane found some thirty nests 

 during his residence of several years in that inhospitable land in the interest 

 of the Hudson Bay Company. The nests were all on the ground and were 

 similar in appearance to those of the last species. The maximum number of eggs 

 was five, these averaging about four by two and three fourths inches. In winter 

 this Swan comes as far south as the Gulf of Mexico and was formerly found 

 on the Chesapeake Bay, but it is now a very rare bird in the Eastern States. 

 It occasionally wanders as far east as Scotland and has also been found in 

 eastern Asia. 



European Whistling Swan. In the northern parts of the Eastern Hemisphere 

 the place is taken by two species belonging to the same group as the American 

 Swans, but they are distinguished at once by having the basal portion of the 

 bill and the lores yellow. The larger of these is the Whooper or Whistling 

 Swan of Europe (C. musicus}, which has a total length of about five feet. It 

 is " essentially an Arctic species, breeding chiefly within the Arctic Circle either 

 on the islands in the deltas of the great rivers or on the lakes of the Siberian 

 tundras." It also breeds in Iceland and the northern parts of Scandinavia, 

 whence it retires in winter to central Asia, China, and Japan. A century ago 

 it nested on the Orkneys, and even now is a not uncommon winter visitor to 

 the British Islands. The nest is described as a bulky affair of sedge and coarse 

 herbage, and the eggs, four or five in number, are pure white. Seebohm, who 

 studied its habits in Siberia, says the notes of the Whooper resemble those of 

 a bass trombone. 



Bewick's Swan (C. bewickii) is a third smaller than the Whooper, and may 

 be distinguished further by the black apical portion of the bill extending much 

 above the nostrils. Its distribution and habits, so far as known, are similar 

 to the last, except it is not found in Iceland and only occasionally in Scandinavia. 



Mute Swan. The Old World is the home also of the Mute Swan (C. olor], 

 so named from the fact that in the domesticated or semi-domesticated state 

 it is without voice, though in its purely wild state it is said by Naumann to have 

 a loud, trumpet-like note, at least during the breeding season. It belongs to 

 a different group from the species already described in possessing a prominent 

 knob at the base of the bill, and in the absence of convolutions of the windpipe 

 within the breast-bone. It is a large bird, often reaching a length of five feet, 



