106 FURTHER NOTES ON THE SWANS OF INDIA. 



Throughout the whole tract therefore north, north-east, and 

 north-west of us from Teheran to Sanghai there are plenty of 

 Swans, and it is by on means surprising that in severe winters 

 some of these should extend their migrations to the more 

 northern portions of this empire. 



During this past cold season Swans have been numerous in 

 the far North West. One was killed, as mentioned by Mr. Blan- 

 ford, near Attock in January, and I heard of two others being 

 killed in the Peshawur district in February, and of many others 

 being seen. 



In February, too, Mr. Watson killed the S Ivans referred to 

 by Mr. Blanford in Sindh. 



But the most remarkable instances have yet to be noticed. 



On the 3rd of June, Major Waterfield telegraphed to me 

 that a Swan had just been shot. 



Later he wrote : "The Swan was killed on the Ojca Jheel on the 

 3rd of June ; there were a pair, but the other flew away. 

 The bird that I have had preserved for you measured exactly 

 5 feet in length and 7 feet 5 inches in expanse. The feet and 

 legs were black ; the upper mandible is reddish white ; its edge, 

 lores, and lower mandible black/' 



A few days later Mr. D. B. Sinclair wrote to say that he had 

 killed another Swan, a male, on the 1st of June at the 

 Gulabad Jheel, 12 miles north-east of Peshawur, and on the 7th 

 July he wrote to say that there was still at least one Swan left 

 on this same jheel. 



The specimen sent by Major Waterfield proved to be a 

 nearly mature C. olgr, but Mr. Sinclair's bird, unfortunately 

 imperfectly preserved, decayed so rapidly in the hot weather 

 that then prevailed, (the temperature was over 100° Far. in the 

 shade at 10 a. m., in Peshawur at the time) that it shortly 

 grew a mass " to make men tremble who never weep," and 

 though, from what was said, I believe it also to have been olor, I 

 cannot be certain. 



What could keep a number of Swans down in the middle of 

 June, in one of the hottest places in India, I cannot pretend to 

 say. 



As far as I can gather, the only Swans that we are likely 

 to meet with in India are C. ferus, C. olor, and C. bewichi, and 

 it may be as well to explain how those may be discriminated. 



In the first place, C. olor at all ages has the tail more or less 

 wedge-shaped, pointed, and comparatively long, while the other 

 two have the tail rounded and short, so that olor may be at 

 once distinguished from the other two. In the adults, of course, 

 olor is further distinguished by the large black fleshy tubercle 

 springing from the forehead and descending on the basal portion 



