Part FE. 
SUBFAM. I. Cyenina. 
GENUS CYGNUS. 
This genus, says Macgillivary, includes a small number 
of species remarkable for great size and length of neck. The 
bill as a rule is rather longer than the head, being furnished 
with a tubercular protuberance at the base, which attains its 
greatest development during the breeding season, afterwards 
decreasing in size. The plumage is close, full, and firm, 
usually pure white ; the wings long and broad; the tail short, 
composed of from eighteen to twenty-four feathers, rounded 
at the tip. The legs, which are short and furnished with broad 
webs between the toes, are placed a little behind the centre 
of the body. The young Swans do not moult during their 
first year. 
The Swans chiefly inhabit temperate and cold regions, 
in which last they breed. The nest is generally close by or 
upon the water, so arranged as to float in case of inundation. 
The eggs are usually whitish, six to nine in number, incubation 
lasting about forty days. The food of the Swans is very 
diversified, consisting of every variety of vegetable matter, 
together with small fishes, tadpoles, worms, and_ similar 
animals. All the species are migratory and gregarious, flying 
in large troops. 
Ten species of Swans are recognized ; the one which is 
not yet known in captivity being Cygnus david? (Petre David’s 
Swan), a species inhabiting Northern China, which Dr. Sclater 
states to be as yet only known by a single specimen at Pekin, 
and which Count Salvadori has not yet satisfactorily identified. 
