434 



merrythought, to a level with the keel of the breastbone or sternum. The keel of the breastbone is 

 double, and receives between its two plates or sides the tube of the trachea, which, after traversing 

 nearly the whole length of the keel, turns suddenly upon itself, passing forwards, upwards, and again 

 backwards, till it ends in the vertical bone of divarication, from whence the two long bronchial tubes 

 go off one to each lobe of the lungs. The depth of the insertion is not, however, so considerable in 

 females or young males." 



The Wild Swan, or Whooper, inhabits Northern Europe and Asia during the warm season ; but at 

 the approach of winter it migrates south, and usually reaches North Africa in the coldest season 

 of the year. It visits Great Britain annually, and is sometimes met with in some numbers. It 

 is said to have formerly bred in the Orkneys ; but it certainly does not do so now. Mr. A. G. 

 More says (Ibis, 1865, p. 441): — "In his 'Fauna Orcadensis' (p. 133), Mr. Low remarks of the 

 Wild Swan, that ' a few pairs build in the holms of the Loch of Stenness. But the few that build 

 here never increase, being always robbed by the country people.' This observation was probably 

 made about eighty years ago, the author having died in 1795. Messrs. Baikie and Heddle add, 

 in 1848, that ' the birds have not been known to build there for many years.' Mr. J. H. Dunn 

 tells me that old men well remember their fathers speaking of having taken several Wild Swans' 

 nests on the small islands in the large loch of Harray, about one hundred years ago." 



It visits almost all parts of our English coasts in the winter, its numbers varying much 

 according to the severity of the season, it being much less common in mild winters than it is in 

 very cold ones. It usually appears in November, but is more frequently seen from December to 

 March. Speaking of the occurrence of this Swan on the Norfolk coast, Mr. Stevenson informs 

 me that, " in 1854-55, a long and hard winter, when wildfowl of all kinds were extremely 

 abundant, I saw upwards of twenty Whoopers that had been killed on our coast or inland waters, 

 but all- of them between January and March ; and this was also the case in 1860-61, when a 

 severe frost, lasting with little intermission from December to the end of the following February, 

 brought great numbers of Wild Swans and other fowl to our shores, though, from the broads 

 and other inland waters being early frozen over, they were chiefly confined to the coast and salt 

 marshes, or passed on further to the south. The return of these fine birds in spring, on their 

 passage northward, is occasionally remarked, of which an instance occurred in the first week of 

 March 1861, when, the weather at the time being mild and open, a 'herd' of twelve were seen 

 to alight early in the morning on the open water of ' Bargate,' at the entrance to Surlingham 

 Broad ; but being disturbed later in the day, they again took wing and quitted the neighbour- 

 hood altogether. In January 1864, and again in the winter of 1869-70, several were shot in 

 this county ; but for the last twenty years at least there has been no such season for Whoopers as 

 that of 1870-71, when the hard weather of that memorable winter commenced with a heavy fall 

 of snow on the 20th of December, increasing day by day until it was over a foot deep on the 

 level. The frost was so intense that the thermometer, even by day, registered only a few degrees 

 above zero ; and this lasted with but little abatement up to the 12th or 13th of January. A 

 rapid thaw on the 14th cleared the ground of most of the first fall of snow ; and though frosts 

 continued at night, the weather moderated considerably up to the 28th, when the snow again 

 fell heavily, and the broads and smaller streams were thickly ice-bound up to the first week in 

 February. My first notice of Wild Swans in that season was an intimation from Mr. Anthony 



