ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 39 
BEWICK’S SWAN. 
(Cygnus bewicki. Cygnus minor). 
Bewick’s Swan, although discovered nearly a hundred years 
ago, was considered by Pallas, the Siberian traveller and 
naturalist, to be a small variety of Cygnus musicus. It was, how- 
ever, identified as a distinct species in 1829, at which time several 
specimens were shot near Newcastle by a gentleman named 
Wingate. Mr. Seebohm, writing on this species, remarks that 
its breeding grounds are confined to the tundras east of the 
White Sea, the lower valleys of the Petchora and other Arctic 
rivers, and to the islands of the Arctic Ocean near these limits. 
This traveller observed Bewick’s Swan arriving in the valley of the 
Yenesai, within the Arctic circle, in Siberia, early in May, being 
very shy and difficult of approach, and to him fell the distinction 
of obtaining the first identified eggs of this interesting bird. 
Bewick’s Swan is a winter visitor to the coasts of Great Britain, 
having been observed in thousands during frosty weather on the 
west coast of Ireland. In 1871, Cygnus bewicki was obtained 
on the lakes of the Northern Hebrides. Examples of this bird 
are plentiful in Natura] History Museums, some fine specimens 
existing in the Dover collection, shot near Rainham (Kent), 
in March, 1845, and presented to the Museum by the 
well-known local ornithologist, Dr. Plomley. Respecting 
the nesting of Cygnus bewtckt, we learn from Seebohm’s 
work that it resembles that of the Whooper, the eggs being 
somewhat smaller. 
Concerning Bewick’s Swan, Mr. F. E. Blaauw writes to the 
“Tbis,” in January, 1904, as follows :— 
“OF Bewick’s Swan (Cygnus bewick?) I have not bred any yet, 
but in October, 1902, a young bird of the year, which had been winged on 
the Zuiderzee was brought tome. I had therefore opportunities of observing 
its juvenile plumage and its changes of plumage. The cvlour of the feathers 
was of a nearly uniform brownish-grey, of a lighter shade than in a young 
