308 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^. Genus Cygnus. 



Subfamily, Cygninm. 



BEWICK'S SWAN. 



CYGNUS BEWICKI- YarreZZ. 



Cygnus bewickii, Yarrell, Trans. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 445 (1833) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. 

 p. 669 (1862) ; Dresser, B. Bur. vi. p. 441, pi. 419, fig. 3 (1880) ; Seebohm, Hist. 

 Brit. B. iii. p. 484 (1885) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 315 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. 

 Pig. Brit. B. pt. xxv. (1893) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 145 

 (1894) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 29 (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs 

 Brit. B. p. 29, pi. 8 (1896) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 252 (1896). 



Qeographical distribution. —British : Bewick's Swan is a winter 

 visitor to the coasts and many inland waters of the British Islands. It is most 

 abundant on the wild broken coast of the west of Scotland and the lakes and 

 western coasts of Ireland. It is, however, fairly well known as a frequent winter 

 visitor on the east coast of Scotland and the coasts of England. Foreign : Northern 

 and Eastern Palaearctic region ; southern Palaearctic region in winter. But little 

 is known of the breeding grounds of this species, and until the visit of Messrs. 

 Seebohm and Harvie-Brown to the valley of the Petchora in the summer of 1875 

 the eggs were absolutely unknown to science. It breeds on the tundras above 

 the limit of forest growth, on the eastern shores of the White Sea, on the islands 

 of Kolguev and Nova Zembla, and in the deltas of the Petchora, Obb, Yenisei, 

 and Lena; on the Liakov Islands and the tundras of North-Eastern Siberia, 

 possibly to Behring Strait. It is only an accidental visitor to Norway and Fin- 

 land, and the coasts of the Baltic, Denmark, Holland, and France ; one example 

 is recorded from Nepal. It passes the great river valleys from the Kama and the 

 Volga eastwards, down those of the Obb, the Yenisei and the Lena, and crosses 

 Turkestan and Mongolia on migration, and winters in the basin of the Caspian, 

 and on the coasts of Japan and China as far south as Shanghai. Mr. Styan 

 records them in flocks of at least a thousand at the head of the Poyang Lake, 

 whilst he states that large flocks frequent the low islands and mudflats at the 

 mouth of the Yangtse. 



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

 treated fully in the preceding chapter. 



Habits. — Bewick's Swan resembles theWhooper very closely in its habits. 

 It is a bird of regular passage to and from the Arctic regions, arriving at its 



