CYGNUS MINOR. 
Bewick’s Swan. 
Cygmis olor /3. minor, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 214. no. 316. 
islandicus, Brelim, Vog. Deutschl., p. 832, tab. 41. fig. 1. 
minor. Keys & Bias. Wirbeltli. Eur., p. 82. 
musicus minor, Sclileg. Rev. Grit, des Ois. d’Eur., p. 112. 
melanorUnns, Naum. Vdg. Deutsch., 1842, tom. xi. p. 497, tab. 297. 
musicus, Faber, Prodr., p. 81. 
musicus /3, minor. Bias. List of Birds of Eur., Eng. edit. p. 204. 
Bewickii, Yarr. Linn. Trans., vol. xvi. p. 445. 
Ornithologists are now very generally agreed that the little Swan to which the late Mr. Yarrell assigned 
the name of Cygmis Bewickii, but which had been previously discriminated as new to the British Fauna by 
Mr. R. R. Wingate, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, had for many years before been known to continental naturalists, 
and bad received from them various specific appellations, the earliest appearing to be that of Cygmis minor, 
from Pallas, a term to which modern writers give the preference. I have therefore no hesitation in 
figuring the bird under the name of C. minor, hut gladly retain for it the English appellation of Bewick’s 
Swan ; for surely there is no one of our departed naturalists who more highly deserves the perpetuation 
of his name, — not that my testimony to his merits is of any importance, since his own unsurpassed natural- 
history delineations will hand down his fame to all future times. Mr. Swinhoe states that he has seen 
the bird exposed for sale in the Shanghai markets, in China, just as it is in those of London and Norwich ; 
and it was also observed by Von Middendorff and Von Schrenck in the countries visited by those celebrated 
naturalists — the Amoor, Siberia, &c. 
The occurrences of Bewick’s Swan in Great Britain are far too numerous to be enumerated in the 
present work, the character of which is to generalize rather than to go into minute detail ; hut I may 
mention that examples have been killed in Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Somersetshire, 
Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, and Lancashire, full particulars of which will he found 
in the ‘ Zoologist ’ and other similar publications. With respect to Cornwall Mr. Rodd remarks : — “ This 
species was so long confounded with C.ferus as a small v^ariety, that I have ventured to record it as Cornish ; 
the distinctive characters of the two birds are beautifully illustrated in a series of anatomical engravings in 
Yarrell’s third volume of his ‘British Birds.’” 
“ In external appearance,” remark Messrs. J^rdine and Selby, “ Bewick’s Swan bears a very close 
resemblance to the Common Hooper, and upon a cursory view may he easily mistaken for a small variety of 
that bird, which, indeed, appears to have been the case. The detection of several specimens which have 
remained for many years in the collections of individuals as common Wild Swans shows that it is not a new 
comer, but may, with the Hooper, have visited this country for an indefinite period, though not in such 
numbers as the latter is known to do. The character which distinguishes Bewick’s Swan from the 
Hooper consists in the great inferiority of size, the former being about a third less than the usual run of 
the latter : — the average length of C. Betcicki being three feet ten inches, the width six feet ; the length of 
the Hooper being five feet, the width eight feet and upwards.” 
What has been said respecting the Whooper (Cygnus ferns') is in a general sense equally descriptive of 
the habits and manners of its smaller congener. They both, with but few exceptions, inhabit the same 
countries, are Influenced by the same migratory impulses, arising from precisely the same causes, and their 
actions and economy are very similar. They are both denizens of the arctic portion of the Old World ; 
but, contrary to what has been asserted, the C. minor does not appear to occur in Iceland, short of which 
it is probably found in all the arctic portions of Europe, Eastern Russia, and Siberia, whence it migrates 
southward when the severity of cold renders those countries untenantable. In England we receive its visits 
much after the manner of those of the Mriiooper, but apparently in smaller numbers. In Ireland, where 
Thompson says it “ is probably a regular winter visitant, it occurs more frequently ” than with us. According 
to Macgillivray it visits Scotland annually at the same season, and appears to be more numerous or more 
easily obtained during severe or long-continued snow-storms. Mr. Stevenson concurs in Mr. Gurney’s 
opinion that the C. minor is more marine in its habits than the C. ferns, never proceeding so far inland as 
its closely allied congener. 
The last-named gentleman having kindly granted me permission to make extracts from the third volume 
