﻿54 anatid*:. 



NATATORES. ANATJDJE. 



PLATE CCXXXIX. 



MUTE SWAN. 



CYGNUS OLOR. 



Although entirely excluded from the list of British 

 Birds by some of our historians, we consider that the Mute 

 Swan has fully as many claims upon us as a half reclaimed, 

 or even naturalized species, as several birds that are so 

 included, since it lives in many of our rivers in a state ap- 

 proaching in the nearest possible degree towards entire 

 liberty, if it does not actually visit Britain occasionally as a 

 voluntary migrant. 



This species inhabits the northern parts of Europe and 

 Asia, preferring the climates of moderate temperature to those 

 of extreme cold. In the southern parts of Scandinavia and 

 Russia, about the large seas of southern Siberia it is most 

 plentiful. Hungary, Poland, Prussia, and the Baltic are 

 among the places of their resort on the approach of winter : 

 the greater numbers however go to the Caspian Sea, the seas 

 of Persia and Greece, and also to Sardinia. 



In all these countries some remain to breed, and in most 

 of them the birds are not only unmolested, but under the 

 protection of magistrates and proprietors of the soil. 



