CYGNUS MUSICUS. 13 



" While duck-shooting with a friend on the river Beas on the 6th 

 January last, at a point just opposite Tulwara in the Hushiapur district, 

 we saw four wild swans on the opposite side of the river. As there was 

 no means of crossing, and the swans were too far and too wary to be 

 reached even by my £our-])ore duck-gun, we sent back to camp for our 

 '303 rifles, and with these weapons we managed to secure one of the four. 

 When we recovered the bird we found it to be undoiibtedly a ' Whooper ' 

 (^Cygnus muslcus), and its weight and measurements were as follows : — 

 Weight 12 lbs. (?). Length from tip of bill to end of tail 4 feet 8i inches, 

 spread of wing 7 feet 5 inches." 



General Osborn in ejyistold added : — " The bird was only winged and 

 swam about in the river for a considerable time before I could get a man 

 to secure it ; and as long as its couipanions remained in sight it continued 

 to utter its long, loud, musical trumpet-call.''^ 



The second record is that of Mr. J. Crerar, who shot a young bird of 

 this species on a sheet of water known as Changra Dhand, in the Rampur 

 Taluka, Larkana District, Sind, on the 31st January, 1904. This bird 

 seems to have been solitary. Its skin has been presented bv the shooter 

 to the Bombay Museum. 



Mr. J. W. Nicol Cumming obtained a fine specimen of the Whooper on 

 the Farrah Bud on the 13th January, 1905, which had been killed on the 

 Hamun-i-Sabari, on which it was reported numerous. The young are also 

 said to be obtained in Seistan, so that, breeding so near India as this, we 

 may hope to have many more records of its visiting our borders. 



It extends practically over the whole of Northern Europe and Asia, 

 extending to Japan and Greenland. In the winter it works south and 

 visits much of Southern Europe, and in Asia has been recorded from 

 Japan, South Yezo, Shanghai, Corea, Teheran, &c. On the Caspian it is 

 very common in the winter and a few even remain to breed about its 

 northern shores. About Corea it cannot be said to be rare in winter, for 

 Mr. C. W. C'ampbell remarks : '' In mild seasons I have noticed that a 

 number of these swans }»ass the winter in a bend of the Han River, about 

 three miles south of Soul." In Iceland this was the only species of 

 swan observed by Messrs. H. J. and C. E. Pearson, and in the ' Ibis ' 

 (1895, }). 243) they have the following note : — "' Eggs were taken on 

 June 20th and 28th, but the weather among the hills had been so bad 

 this spring that several pairs were only commencing to prepare their nests 

 about the latter date. We afterwards saw a clutch of seven eggs, which 

 had iieen recentlv taken. Althouoh these birds sometimes breed on islands 



