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sent to Northrepps, where they at once settled, and in due time made a nest, and out of six eggs 

 produced five young ones — three on the 21st, and two on the 22nd of May; these were a delicate 

 buff-colour when hatched, which gradually faded to pure white. When I first saw them on 

 June 2nd the buff tinge was hardly perceptible, except on the back, which appeared of a rich 

 creamy buff, with the underparts nearly pure white. On the 16th of June the largest cygnet 

 was killed by a rat and nearly destroyed ; and on the 27th July, Mr. Gurney wrote me, that the 

 cygnets were beginning to show some feathers, which were ' dull cinnamon-brown, much like 

 the first down.' About the 10th of August the most backward and smallest cygnet died: it is 

 the one I now exhibit, and agrees as to plumage with Mr. Gurney's description on the 27th 

 July: you will perceive that the tail-feathers, which are now showing, are pale yellowish buff, 

 and that the wing-coverts are the same colour ; all the other parts from which the down has not 

 yet been moulted are pure white. On the 20th of August I again saw the three cygnets ; they 

 had then assumed nearly all their feathers, and were more than half grown : the colour was 

 white, apparently stained or sullied by a yellowish tint, which was strongest on the wing-coverts ; 

 feet pale ash-colour, and beak a purplish flesh-colour, differing entirely from the lead-colour of 

 the bill in the young Mute Swan of the same age. The colour of the feet did not differ greatly 

 from that of the young of the Mute Swan ; and I agree with Mr. Stevenson, that at no stage of 

 growth is this a character to be depended upon. When the breeze lifted the feathers upon the 

 back of the young birds the buff tinge was more visible. There were also several peculiarities 

 about the head, with which, although very important, I will not trouble you. 



" I think it may be taken as proved that there is a Swan which produces white or nearly 

 white cygnets. With regard to Professor Westerman's remarks to Mr. Gurney, that he had 

 known a brood of mixed cygnets in Holland, and other instances recorded in the ' Field ' for 

 July 8th, 1871, in which a pair of Swans in Wales produced three white cygnets in a brood of 

 the usual colour in one year, and a single one in another — the only instances of mixed broods I 

 have ever heard of — I would say that I have very little doubt one of the parents in each case 

 was a Polish bird, or that they were of mixed blood. From the fact of more than one Polish 

 Swan killed in this neighbourhood having been partially pinioned, I am led to believe that, 

 although others have been undoubtedly wild specimens, there are birds of this species at large 

 on our waters unknown to their owners, and that various degrees of infusion of Polish blood 

 may account for individuals which I have observed in several ornamental waters partaking more 

 or less of the characters of both species. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has told me of such birds on 

 the Serpentine, and at Gatton Park ; I have noticed others ; and one on the lake in Battersea 

 Park, so far as I had an opportunity of observing it, appeared to me to be almost a pure 

 Polander. 



"From what 1 have just said, mixed broods, or cygnets varying in colour, are just what we 

 might expect ; but so far from this being the case, I never could hear of any variation. Seventy 

 cygnets now in the Swan-pit are as much alike as it is possible for them to be. Mr. Simpson 

 who has had from seventy to a hundred through his hands yearly for the past thirty years, never 

 saw a white cygnet. From this, I think, we may conclude that, if there is a mixture of blood, 

 the dark colour inherited from the Olor parent is so strong in the cygnet as not to be appreciably 

 affected by the Polish strain, but that the characters which distinguish the Polish breed assert 



