Family ANATID^. Genus Cygnus. 



Subfamily Cygninm. 



MUTE SWAN. 



CYGNUS Q-U:)K—{Gmelin). 



Geographical Distribution. — British: Whether the pre- 

 sent species was introduced into the British Islands (as some 

 writers affirm it was by Richard I. from Cyprus) or not is a ques- 

 tion somewhat difficult to decide. It is rather remarkable that such 

 an explanation should ever have been put forward, for there is 

 nothing extraordinary in a bird which, in a wild state, is a regular 

 summer visitor to Denmark and North Germany, extending its 

 migrations to our islands. Its exceeding beauty and gracefulness 

 probably led very early in the history of our civilisation to its do- 

 mestication, which has finally brought it to its present condition 

 of a semi-wild resident species. It is to be met with more or 

 less abundantly throughout the United Kingdom, wherever man 

 affords it protection, some of the Swanneries being very ancient 

 and extensive. Foreign: Western Palsarctic region ; occasionally 

 in the extreme north-west of the Oriental region during winter. 

 Breeds in South Sweden (but only an accidental visitor to Norway), 

 Denmark, Germany west of the Rhine, Central and South Russia, 

 the valley of the Danube, Transylvania and Greece, Turkestan 

 and Mongolia. It occasionally wanders into Dauria, and to North- 

 west India during the cold season. In the basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and throughout most of Europe south of the above 

 limits^ it is best known as a winter visitor, and during that season 

 it is also found in the southern districts of the Caspian. 



Allied Forms. — None of sufficient propinquity to demand 

 notice. In 1838 Yarrell described a Swan under the name of 

 Cygnus immutabilis [Proc. Zool. Soc. 1838, p. 19). It was said 



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