HOOPER OR WILD SWAN. 
95 
In the Edinburgh market, and among the poulterers 
there, a few specimens generally occur during winter, 
all of which are said to come from the “ North.” 
In the time of Mr. Low a few pairs were said to 
breed in Orkney, but we have been unable to ascer- 
tain if this still continues. The greater mass mi- 
grate and incubate in the northern countries of 
Europe. We have, however, few records of an 
extra-European range, the American bird being 
now considered distinct. In confinement to artifi- 
cial waters, this swan seems very readily to accom- 
modate itself. In the gardens of the Zoological 
Society they have repeatedly bred. 
The wild swan is easily distinguished from the 
last by the want of the knob and black base of the 
bill. This member is orange-yellow for more than 
half its length ; the colour extends forward on the 
edges of the mandible, and forms a lengthened tri- 
angle of that colour, the apical portion of the bill 
is black. The plumage is pure white, but on the 
head, cheeks, and upper part of the neck, is often 
narrowly streaked with reddish brown ; the young 
are often of a dull brown ; internally, the trachea 
forms a convolution inside the keel of the sternum, 
entering and returning inside of the os furcatorius ; 
the bronchial divisions are of considerable length. 
