306 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, Xi. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— THE NEPAL WILD SWAN (CYGNUS MUSICUS not 



C. BE WICK I). 



In the first number of the Society's Journal for the current year, heads of 

 Cygnus ohr and C. bewicki (minor) are figured, and a good account is given by 

 Mr. Stuart Baker of the evidence upon which the inclusion of these two 

 species in the "List of Indian Birds" is decided I have recently had occasion 

 to go over the evidence critically whilst preparing the last volume of birds in 

 the '' Fauna of British India," and there is, I find, a correction of some import- 

 ance necessary. • I ought to state that had the data before me been those 

 available to Mr. Baker„ I should have come to the same conclusion as he has 

 done : indeed, I had put doAvn C. bewicki as one of the Indian Swans on the 

 authority of Mr. Hume, confirmed by that of Count Salvadori, in the 

 " Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, ' vol. xxvii, p. 32, when I 

 found that there had evidently been an error in the identification. 



The facts as quite clearly stated by Mr. Baker are that, whilst Cygnus olor 

 has been several times killed in the Punjab and Sind, the only recorded 

 occurrence of any other species of Swan in India is that of a single specimen 

 obtained by Hodgson in the valley of Nepal in January, 1829. Of this a 

 drawing was made, now, with Hodgson's other drawings, in the library of the 

 Zoological Society ; the skin was destroyed, but the skull and feet were pre- 

 served, and are now in the British Museum. 



The drawing was regarded as that of C, bewicki by Hume on account of 

 the coloration of the bill. This drawing is not so carefully made as most of 

 Hodgson's drawings are; and so far as the coloration of the bill is concerned, 

 it seems to me that either the Whooper {Cygnus musicus) or Bewick's Swan 

 might be represented. No dimensions are noted, though most of Hodgson's 

 drawings have full measurements on them. 



The skull and foot are included in the " British Museum Catalogue" under 

 Bewick's Swan. Mr. Ogilvie Grant was good enough to have them brought 

 out, and we compared them with several specimens of C. musicus and 

 C.iewicki, and came to the conclusion that they must undoubtedly be assigned 

 to the former as they were much too large for Bewick's Swan. It is necessary 

 here to note that the length of the tarsus given for Bewick's Swan in the 

 British Museum Catalogue (p. 31) and copied by Mr. Baker {ante, p. 14) 

 namely, 4 8 inches, must, I think, be a mistake : probably a misprint in the 

 first instance for 3"d. Dresser, in the " Birds of Europe," gives 3'85, and this 

 agrees with the tarsi in the skins I examined. 



I am thus compelled to conclude that the Whooper (C. musicus) must be 

 included amongst the birds of India and Bewick's Swan (C. bewicki) must be 

 omitted. 



W. T. BLANFORD, 



London, 23rd July, 1897. 



