422 



Sea it is a winter visitant, remaining until February or March, when it migrates northwards ; 

 and it is found also, during the cold season, on the coast of Asia Minor ; but Canon Tristram 

 did not meet with it in Palestine. The Mute Swan is a regular winter visitant to North-east 

 Africa, and is found in the lagoons of the Nile delta, especially on Lake Menzaleh, where Von 

 Heuglin met with it early in October, in pairs or small flocks, and it occasionally remains, he 

 says, as late as May ; so that some may possibly breed there. Loche says that this Swan is 

 tolerably common on the great lakes of Algeria ; and according to Favier {fide Colonel Irby), it 

 is numerous near Tangier, passing over in small flights, but rarely remaining in the vicinity, 

 though it did so in 1845 and 1849. As a rule they pass south in December, returning in April. 

 How far the Mute Swan ranges in Africa I cannot say ; but it does not appear to pass far south 

 in that continent, and has not been recorded below the northern districts. 



In Asia it of rare eccurrence, except in the west. It is found on the Caspian. Severtzoff 

 records it as breeding in Turkestan ; and Mr. Scully, in his notes on the avifauna of Eastern 

 Turkestan (Stray Feathers, iv. p. 197), writes: — "The Swan was often mentioned to me as being 

 plentiful in Lob and towards Aksu ; captive individuals of this species were seen at Kashghar 

 in November, swimming in a pond at the shrine of Hazrat Apak. The Turki name for the 

 species is Koday." It is not included by Dr. Jerdon as occurring in India ; but two young birds 

 were obtained by Captain Unwin, on the 17th January 1871, at the Jubbee stream, on the 

 borders of the Hazara and Rawulpindee districts, and sent to Mr. A. O. Hume, which, from the 

 description given by this latter gentleman, could be nothing but immature examples of Cygnus 

 olor. Mr. Hume remarks that Swans appear to be regular annual visitants to the above locality 

 as well as several other places lying between Rawulpindee and the western limits of the Peshawur 

 valley. 



The Mute Swan has been recorded from as far east as South-east Siberia ; for Dr. Radde 

 says that he saw a pair in May 1856 at Kulussutajeffsk, and distinctly recognized them by the 

 knob at the base of the bill, though he did not succeed in procuring either of them. 



The Mute or common Swan is certainly one of the most elegant of our European water- 

 birds ; hence it is so frequently kept on ponds, rivers, and ornamental sheets of water in a 

 domesticated or semidomesticated state ; and, indeed, there can be no more beautiful ornament on 

 a lake than this graceful bird. When kept where it comes into continual contact with man, and 

 especially where food is often thrown to it, the Swan becomes very tame and familiar ; but when 

 wild it is extremely cautious and shy, and is as difficult of approach as any of the wild Geese. 

 This is very apparent in localities where wild Swans are seen on passage ; for they resort to 

 places where they can command an uninterrupted view of the surrounding neighbourhood, and 

 on the least appearance of danger they seek safety in flight. As a rule the Mute Swan affects 

 inland sheets of water, and resorts to the open sea only when subjected to persecution, or when 

 moulting and unable to fly. When on the sea it resorts to quiet bays, the mouths of rivers, 

 and places where the sea is not rough, being but seldom met with far from the coast. Its 

 favourite places of resort are large sheets of water where the shores are well covered with aquatic 

 plants, sedge, rushes, &c, or rivers where the current is not swift ; but it prefers places where 

 the reeds are neither too high nor so close that it cannot swim with ease amongst them. 



Though the Swan swims with such ease, it is quite as awkward and clumsy on land as it is 



