252 CYGNUS. 



With large tubercle on bill. 



286. Cygnus olor. The Mutb Swan. 



(The "Tame Swan" of Europe.) 



Olor =3, Swan, in classical Latin, especially in poetry. Perhaps a Spanish word. Of. Welsh 

 alarch. 



Penr, Punjab; Koday, Tarkand. 



<J 55J" to 60"; 15 lbs. 2 53"; 13 lbs. Legs black. Bill, lower mandible 

 black, upper mandible red-orange, with lores, tubercle, base, nostrils, nail, and 

 edges black. Plumage white, with cream or buff tinge. Tail comparatively 

 long and wedge-shaped. Eemiges thirty-one. — Female: Similar, but smaller, 

 with smaller frontal tubercle. Sits on eggs for six weeks. — Toung, sooty grey, 

 do not acquire full plumage tiU second year. Europe, N. and C. Asia. An 

 occasional visitor to N.W. India and Sind. Nest of dead reeds and grass 2 feet 

 high and 5 feet across. Five to eleven eggs (4^ x 3), greenish white. Hybrids 

 with C. musicus and C. atratus. (B. 1577. H. & M. iii. 41.) 



Also C. immutdbilis. The Polish Swan, the wild variety of C. olor, but legs are ashy grey, 

 and tubercle is less developed. Generally regarded as a quasi albino produced by domestication. 

 None of the characters attributed to this bird are constant. Hybrids with B, leucopsis, the 

 Barnacle Goose, and £. canadensis. 



C. melancoryphus. 48". The Black-necked Swan. Legs flesh colour. Bill leaden, base 

 and knob red. Plumage white, with head and upper-neck black. Narrow white eye-ring. 

 S. America. 



With no protuberance on bill. 



287. Cygnus musicus. The Whooper Swan. 



^MS?(;«s= musical ; from Musa=t'he Muse. 



(J 60"; 19 lbs. ? 52"; 16 J lbs. Legs black. Bill, lores, and base yellow, 

 anterior part black. Erontal feathers prolonged into an angle. Eemiges thirty- 

 four. Plumage white, with occasionally some ferruginous yellow on the head. — 

 Female: Similar, but smaller. — Fomw^.- Greyish brown. Legs flesh colour. Bill 

 flesh colour, tip and margins black, with orange band across nostrils. Arctic 

 Europe and Asia, migrating to S. Europe, Turkistan, China, and Japan. Eesident 

 in Iceland. One specimen of this bird (or of C. davidi) was obtained in Nepal 

 in 1829. Two to seven eggs (4J x 2-85), white. Hybrids with G. olor. (B. 1578. 

 H. & M. iii. 47.) 



Also C. bewicki. S 42" to 50". 9 39" to 40". Bewick's Swan, named after Thomas Bewick 

 (b. 1753, d. 1828), author of the History of British Birds. Similar to 0. musicus, but smaller. 

 Bare space from eye to nostril deep yellow. Breeds in Arctic Siberia, and migrates to Great 

 Britain, W. and C. Europe, Caspian, S. Siberia, China, and Japan. Two to three eggs (4 x 2-57), 

 white. 



G. americanus. 53" to 55". The Whistling Swan. Legs black. Bill black. Lores black, 

 with yellow spot. Plumage white. Head, and sometimes the neck and below, tinged rusty. 

 Tail of twenty feathers. N. America, accidental in Scotland. 



C. buccinator. 58^" to 68". The Trumpeter Swan. Legs, bill, and lores black. Plumage 

 white. Head, and sometimes neck and below, tinged rusty. Tail of twenty-four feathers. 

 N. America. 



288. Cygnus davidi. 



Bill vermilion, tip black. Legs orange. Entirely white. Smaller than 

 C. bewicki. Its nearest ally is 0. coscoroba of Chili, but it is larger than that. 

 Mr. Horace Vere, of the Indian Salt Eevenue, wrote to me from Dera Ghazi Khan 



