OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 305 



Family ANATID^. Genus Cygnus. 



Subfamily Gygntnm. 



WHOOPER SWAN. 



CYGNUS MUSICUS-Bec7isi5eOT. 



Anas cygnus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 194 (1766 partim). 



Cygnus musicus, Bechstein; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 659 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. vi. 

 p. 433, pi. 419, fig. 4 (1880) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 308 (1885) ; Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 480 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxv. (1893) ; Dixon, 

 Nests and Eggs, Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 144 (1894) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 

 xxvii. p. 26 (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 29, pi. 7 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 247 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British : The Whooper Swan, upon the 



authority of Low, is said to have bred in the Orkneys upwards of a hundred years 

 ago. It is now a winter visitor only, passing the Shetlands on migration, and is 

 found more or less commonly round the Scotch coasts, including St. Kilda, the 

 Orkneys, and the Hebrides. To England it is not so common a visitor, but it 

 occurs in most suitable districts from Northumberland to Devonshire, inland as 

 well as on and off the coasts, Slapton Ley, in South Devon, being one of its 

 many favourite resorts. The same remarks apply to Ireland, although this 

 species is never seen in such enormous quantities as its smaller ally, Bewick's 

 Swan. Foreign : Northern Palaearctic region ; southern Palaearctic region in 

 winter. It is an accidental straggler to Greenland, visits the Faroes on migration, 

 and breeds commonly in Iceland. It breeds throughout Arctic Europe and Asia, 

 in the former not below the Arctic circle in Norway, but four degrees further 

 south in Sweden, Finland, and North Eussia. In Asia it does not appear to nest 

 commonly below the Arctic circle, and ranges above that limit eastwards to 

 Behring Strait. In Europe it wanders south during winter to the basin of the 

 Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas, as far as the lakes of Algeria, Lower 

 Egypt, and Palestine. The Asiatic birds pass South Siberia and Mongolia on 

 migration, and spend the cold season in Japan and on the coasts of China as far 

 south as Shanghai. It is said to have wandered abnormally to Nepal. 



Allied forms. — None nearer than Cygnus hewicki, a British species 

 treated fully in the following chapter. 

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