AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 161 



A fourth species of Swan has occurred in England, 

 and was originally distinguished by Yarrell from the 

 present bird under the name of Polish Swan, Cygnus 

 immiitahilis. This species when adult is hardly to 

 be separated from the Mute Swan by any external 

 characters, but the young birds on leaving the egg 

 are covered with light buff-coloured down which 

 rapidly becomes white, and is succeeded by plumage 

 very nearly of as pure a white as that of the parent 

 birds, though occasionally interspersed with a few 

 reddish-buff feathers. I have kept several of these 

 Polish Swans at Lilford, where they have bred, and I 

 much regret that, not being aware at the time that 

 any special interest attached to these birds, I did not 

 record, or take any very detailed notes of the occur- 

 rences ; however, from the fact that a pair of the 

 first bred, nested, and produced Cygnets of exactly 

 the same type as themselves at Lilford, I am fully 

 disposed to consider the Polish Swan to be a good 

 species. I have heard of several instances of one or 

 more white Cygnets appearing amongst a brood of 

 the ordinary colour, and have little doubt that this 

 departure from the normal type of Mute Swan was 

 due to a strain of the so-called ' Polish ' blood. I 

 became tired of my Swans, as they bullied and drove 

 about the other pinioned water-fowl on our ponds, so 

 that I gradually disposed of them as presents to 

 friends, but some years ago I invested in a new pair 

 of (so-called) Polish Swans, which, in 1884, for the 

 first time nested and laid four or five eggs, all of 

 which proved to be infertile ; and as this pair of birds 

 carried on this profitless performance annually with 

 the same result, and in the meantime made them^ 

 selves in every way objectionable, I gave them away 



VOL. 11. M 



