440 



sound of their wings is not unlike the distant barking of dogs. Its loud trumpet-like call is 

 usually uttered on the wing; and when many together are heard it sounds like the music of 

 a pack of hounds in full cry. 



Although so seldom tamed, the Whooper is said to be as capable of domestication as Cygnus 

 olor ; but if left unpinioned it will disappear when the flocks of its wild kinsmen pass on their 

 way northwards. Dr. Saxby gives (B. of Shetl. pp. 232-234) an interesting account of a Whooper 

 which was caught and tamed by a fisherman in the island of Yell, and remained in a state of 

 domestication, though allowed to roam about at will, for upwards of two years, when, its wing- 

 feathers having been allowed to grow, it joined a passing flock and never returned. 



The Whooper breeds in high northern latitudes, nesting not, like the Mute Swan, in 

 colonies, but singly, in the vast, almost unapproachable morasses of the high north, where its 

 nest, which resembles that of Cygnus olor, is placed on a tussock, and is used, should the birds 

 not be molested, several years in succession. According to the Swedish authors, six or eight 

 eggs are laid ; but Palmen states that in Finnish Lapland it only lays four or five, which are 

 deposited in May. The young birds grow very slowly, and are said to be unable to fly until late 

 in August, some not being fledged before Michaelmas. Mr. Benzon informs me that in Iceland 

 it breeds commonly in the larger morasses about the middle of May, and usually lays five eggs, 

 sometimes only four, and but seldom six. He adds, however, that he possesses one clutch of 

 seven eggs. Of the series of eggs in his collection the earliest were taken on the 6th May, and 

 the latest on the 30th of that month, and they vary in size from 101 by 65 to 115 by 75 milli- 

 metres. In my own collection are eggs from Iceland and Lapland, which are ivory-white or pale 

 yellowish-white in colour, and vary in size from 4f^ by 2§^- to 4ff by 2f ^ inches. 



I have not thought it necessary to figure more than the heads of this species, and have 

 figured the adult male for comparison with Bewick's Swan. 



The specimens described and figured are from Great Britain. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mies. H. E. Dresser, 

 a, ad., b,juv. Great Britain. 



a, b. Great Britain, c. Europe. 



a, b, ad., c, d,juv. Norfolk coast. 



E Mus. Brit. Reg. 



E Mus. H. Stevenson. 



