420 



black; as it assumes the white dress a lighter grey tinged with green replaces the lead-colour, and 

 before the close of the second year these dark tints have given place to a pinkish flesh-colour, which in 

 the following spring darkens into orange-red. 



Young in down. Covered with soft brownish or dull ashy grey down, which on the lower throat and breast 

 becomes much paler, almost white in colour; bill and legs lead-grey. 



This, the common domestic Swan, is not only very generally kept in a tame or semidomesticated 

 state throughout Europe, but in some parts of Northern and Eastern Europe it is tolerably 

 numerous in a perfectly wild condition. With us in Great Britain it is not met with in a true 

 feral state, and those which are found straggling about on our coasts are examples which have 

 strayed away from some one of the swanneries where these birds breed in a state of semidomes- 

 tication. There are in several parts of England large swanneries, as, for instance, that at 

 Abbotsbury ; but, besides these, a few pairs breed together in many of our larger rivers or sheets 

 of water. According to Yarrell the Mute or common Swan was introduced into England from 

 Cyprus in the reign of Richard I., who began his reign in 1189 ; but it is very probable that it 

 was brought to our country prior to that period, possibly by the Romans, who naturalized both 

 the Pheasant and the Fallow Deer on this island ; so that it has clearly earned as good a right as 

 the Pheasant to be included as a British species. 



Though very generally distributed throughout England, it becomes rarer in the north, and is 

 not included as a Scotch bird by Mr. Robert Gray. It is frequently kept in captivity in Ireland, 

 as it is in England ; but it is not known to have been found there in a wild state. 



Our Mute Swan does not occur in Northern Scandinavia, except as a very rare straggler, and 

 has only lately been included as a Norwegian species by Mr. Robert Collett, who states (Orn. N. 

 Norw. p. 89) that " two young birds of this species, neither of which had attained the adult 

 plumage, were killed in the south of the country, both in winter. One was shot on the ice, at 

 the inland extremity of the Christianiafjord, on the 31st December 1869, and is now preserved 

 in the University Museum; the other was killed near Twedestrand, in December 1870, and 

 transmitted to the Museum by Mr. Aall, proprietor of the Nses Ironworks." 



In Sweden it is said to be met with only in the southern provinces. Formerly it used to be 

 much more numerous in Skane than it now is, as so many of its old haunts have been drained 

 and brought under cultivation. It nests, however, on many of the lakes of that province, and is 

 often seen on the coasts in large flocks after the nesting-season ; and though many migrate south- 

 ward at the approach of winter, not a few remain there even during severe weather. It has not 

 been met with in Finland, except in a tame state ; nor does it appear to range far north in Russia. 

 According to Sabanaeff it occurs on the spring passage in the Jaroslaf Government, and Meshanoff 

 met with it in the south-western portions of the Vologda Government. It nests in the southern 

 portions of the Ural ; and Artzibascheff says that it is common on the lakes of the Sarpa, where 

 it breeds ; he saw large numbers also on the Khana and Tzaga-nour lakes. 



It is said to be only an accidental straggler to Poland; but it occurs with tolerable regularity 

 on some of the larger lakes in Northern Germany, and half-wild examples are to be met with 

 near Potsdam. Borggreve says that it nests on the Aalbecker lake in Pomerania, and the 

 N eustettiner lake in Prussia, but that, as a migrant, it is much less numerous on the coasts than 



