THE TRUE SWANS. 
249 
the lakes probably not producing the particular water-plants 
which formed its favourite food, but it was very common on 
the islands in the Delta, and was especially fond of the 
‘ Kourias,’ long reaches of water running inland for some 
little distance, and often fringed with willows. Most of the 
islands in the Delta are under water for a few days, when the 
river is at its height, but they are nevertheless generally covered 
with low willow-trees, and very often, in the middle of an 
island, there is a little lake. By cautiously stealing up to these 
lake.s, under cover of the willows, we frequently obtained the 
most charming glimpses of happy families of Swans, and half 
a dozen different species of Ducks, feeding in delightful 
security. Tlie Whooper is a ten times handsomer bird tlran a 
tame Swan in the eyes of an ornithologist, but it is not really 
so graceful j its neck is shorter, and its scapulars are not so 
plume-likc. Instead of sailing about with its long neck curved 
into the shape of the letter S and bent back almost to the 
fluffed-up scapulars, the Whooper seemed intent on feeding 
with his head and neck under water. At the slightest noise 
the neck was raised erect, and the head turned round from side 
to side, like a weathercock on a steeple. Even in July the 
Whoopers were not always single or in pairs, and we frequently 
saw half a dozen swimming together, or preening their feathers 
on a sand-bank. We sometimes tried to drift silently down 
stream within gun-shot of some of these small parties or herds, 
as they are called in the technical language of the sportsman, 
but they were too many for us, and rose with a tremendous 
splash, their wings beating the water for twenty or thirty yards, 
before they got sufficient way on, to be able to rise high 
enough. When once on the wing, they flew with great speed, 
with steady beats of their long powerful wings. 
“ On migration the Whooper is a very gregarious bird, and by 
far the greater number which passed us in the valley of the 
Yenesei on the way north were in herds, which generally flew 
in a wedge-shaped line j they were soon out of sight, and some- 
times passed over us at a great height. Many a time, w'hcn 
struggling with snow-shoes on the treacherous half-melting 
snow in the forest, I have heard their trumpet-calls, without 
being able to catch a glimpse of them between the trees. The 
notes of the Whooper are like the bass notes of a trombone, 
