FURTHER NOTES ON THE SWANS OF INDIA. 105 



Between 1872 and 1876 I received notices of Swans being 

 killed on three occasions, on the Swat and Cabul rivers, in the 

 Peshawur District, and in Kohat near one of our salt mines, in 

 November, January, and February. In one case a pair, in an- 

 other three, and in the last case five were seen, one being shot 

 in each case, but none preserved. 



In 1877 Captain Butler learnt from some of the telegraph 

 officers in the Persian Gulf that Swans had been occasionally 

 seen about the head of that gulf, and the mouths of the Eu- 

 phrates. 



I may mention that Major St. John obtained a single imma- 

 ture specimen of a Swan at Teheran, which has been with some 

 hesitation referred to C. ferus. During the winter he informs 

 me that Swans abound on the southern shores of the Caspian, 

 especially in the huge Murdab (or dead water) back water be- 

 tween Enzeli and Resht. According to Pallas, Zoogr. Ross. As., 

 II., 210 — 217, Cygnus ferus (which he calls olor, and under 

 which he apparently includes bewicki) is extremely abundant 

 in the Caspian wintering in the Southern portion, while olor 

 (which he calls sibilus) is, it may be gathered from his remarks, 

 less numerous in the localities he visited, (he only touched the 

 northern shores of the Caspian) and affects more temperate 

 climes than ferus. 



From Severstzoff we know that both Cygnus ferus and C. olor 

 occur and breed in parts of Eastern Turkestan, the Issik-kul, 

 and country south of Lake Balkash ; and he also mentions 

 a Cygnus altumi, of Homeyer, as occurring there — a species of 

 which I never previously heard, and which I have not had time 

 to trace. 



Dr. Scully, it will be remembered (S. F., IV., 179,) saw 

 captive specimens of C. olor near Kashghar itself, and was in- 

 formed that it was extremely plentiful further north at Aksu, 

 and further east at Lob. 



Prjevalsky mentions both C. ferus and olor as observed as 

 migrant, (and as possibly breeding in some localities) in S. E. 

 Mongolia, Kokonor, and Dalainor, &c, and he also refers to 

 C. bewickii as seen in company with three others. 



Both Swiuhoe and David and Oustalet give Cygnus ferus 

 and Oygnus bewicki as occurring in China, at any rate as far 

 south as Shanghai, together with another smaller Swan, C. davidi 

 of Swinhoe, which Taczanowski, according to David and Oustalet,* 

 is most unaccountably inclined to unite with C. sibilus, Pallas, 

 which is quite clearly C. olor. 



* Pere David and his confrere remark that Pallas has indicated a Swan '-en termed 

 fort vagues, sous le nom de Cygnus sibilus." I must dissent from this. I think 

 Pallas in his Zoogr. Ross. As., p. 216, about as explicitly indicates olor by his sibilus 

 by contrasting it with ferus (his olor, (a) major) as it was possible for any one to do. 



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