260 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
The breeding-places of Bewick's Swan are further north 
and east than those of the preceding species, and m its 
winter-migration it does not seem to occur so far south. 
THE MUTE SWAN. Cygnus olor (J. F. GmeUn). 
Local name— Tame Swan. 
A resident in a semi-domesticated state. 
The Mute Swan is kept on many lakes throughout the 
county, and besides being an ornament, it serves a very 
utmtarian purpose in keeping in check noxious aquatic 
weeds. In very severe winters, when they are frozen 
out of their homes, these birds seek the estuaries and 
open sea of the Solway Firth. , _ 
Mr R. Service writes me : " Looking to the known range 
of the wild Mute Swan in the breeding season, as well as the 
complete way in which they are perforce frozen out m 
winter I have not the least hesitation m behevmg that at 
least a smaU proportion of the wild swans that v'^* 
certain favourable seasons are really examples of tins 
species. At the same time I cannot cite any undoubted 
instances-such would be difficult enough of proof . Howard 
Saunders states: "The Mute Swan still breeds in a 
perfectly wUd state at no greater distance from us than 
Denmark and the south of Sweden, whence it "s/oy^^d g 
cold to migrate in winter"*; so that Mr. Service s belief 
may well be correct. . ^ 
It is not necessary to enumerate the -^^^^ ^^'^ ^l 
water where this beautiful species is kept, but for many 
years the Swans at Lochmaben have ^een a feature of its 
lochs. Here they were mtroduced about 1835. Mj^ John 
Haining, a man of eighty-six, interviewed by Mr^W^ 
J. HalMay at Lochmaben in 1908, states: "I remember 
» Man. Brit. BirdSy 1899, p. 417. 
