WHOOPER. 
CYGNUS MUSICUS. 
It is useless to enumerate every locality in which this species has come under my observation ; in smaller 
or larger “herds”* these fine birds have been met with during winter along many portions of the open coast- 
line from Sutherland to Sussex. Though, stragglers may not unfrequently he seen early in the season, it is 
usually a few days in advance of heavy gales of wind from the north or east or the setting in of frost and snow 
that Wild Swans put in an appearance in any numbers on the saltwater lochs and friths of the Northern 
nio-hlands — arriving somewhat later on the broads and meres of the eastern counties, whence they are shortly 
driven to the estuaries and mud-flats further south. 
Whoopers occasionally penetrate long distances inland ; when living in the west of Perthshire I ascertained 
that a pair of these birds took up their quarters during winter for three successive years on some small lochs 
near the head of Glenlyon. Their haunts in this wild and desolate glen, shut in by steep and rugged hills, 
were seldom intruded on ; and they took little or no notice of any keepers or shepherds making their way 
across country by an old hill-track that ran along the loch-side. In December 1865 I went up the glen 
to learn whether the birds were Whoopers or Bewick’s Swans, and on my first visit had not the slightest 
difficulty in perceiving that they belonged to the former species. On our approach the pair were dressing 
their feathers (one occasionally preening the neck of the other or bowing its head with a low chattering note) 
on the shore of the loch near the road. Not needing specimens, I made no attempt to obtain a shot, though 
both could doubtless have been procured with the greatest ease, the large slabs of rock and stone encum- 
bering the track offering every chance for a successful stalk. When at length aroused they merely paddled 
off to the distance of eighty or one hundred yards, and, turning round, quietly regarded without the slightest 
symptoms of alarm the intruders on their domain. The assistance of the glasses was scarcely needed to 
establish their identity : the birds, judging by their comparative sizes and actions, were evidently male and 
female, the former weighing probably as much as four or five and twenty pounds, while the latter was 
considerably lighter. In 1866 I did not remain sufficiently long in the north to inspect the Swans, who were 
somewhat late in reaching the glen ; the following year the snow fell early, and the pair having been reported 
at their accustomed quarters, the first opportunity was taken to again interview my old friends. On arriving in 
sight of the loch a heavy snow-squall was passing over, and for a time the birds remained undetected; at last, 
when the storm cleared off, they came in view, swimming slowly out of a small creek in which they had evidently 
sought shelter from the cutting blasts, the first glimpse being sufficient to show that they corresponded in 
every particular with the pair so closely examined on the former occasion. The wind now increasing rapidly 
and causing the snow to drift, rendered it necessary to beat a speedy retreat ; so without delaying to make 
* To the general reader many of the names bestowed on flocks of Wildfowl and Plover by those who claim to be professors of the art of 
fowling could not fail to be confusing ; in these pages it is advisable to use only such terms as are perfectly intelligible. The meaning of a 
“herd ” of Swans must be plain to all ; but such expressions as a “ little knob ” of Teal or a “ dapping ” of Sheldrakes might prove perplexiu<» 
