em So

 

CYGNUS MINOR.
Bewick’s Swan.

Cygnus olor 8. minor, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 214. no. 316.
islandicus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 832, tab. 41. fig. 1.

minor, Keys. & Blas. Wirbelth. Eur., p. 82.

musicus minor, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., p. 112.
melanorhinus, Naum, Vog. Deutsch., 1842, tom. xi. p. 497, tab. 297.
musicus. Faber, Prodr., p. 81.

musicus 8B, minor, Blas. List of Birds of Eur., Eng. edit. p. 204.
Bewichii, Yarr. Linn. Trans., vol. xvi. p. 445.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OrnrruoLocists are now very generally agreed that the little Swan to which the late Mr. Yarrell assigned
the name of Cygnus Bewicku, 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 had received from them various specific appellations, the earliest appearing to be that of Cygnus 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, but 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 bis 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; but I may
mention that examples have been killed in Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Somersetshire,
Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, and Lancashire, full particulars of which will be 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 variety, that I have ventured to record it as Coruish ;
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. Jardine and Selby, ‘‘ Bewick’s Swan bears a very close
resemblance to the Common Hooper, and upon a cursory view may be 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. Bewicki being three feet ten inches, the width six feet ; the length of
the Hooper being five feet, the width eight feet and upwards.”

What bas been said respecting the Whooper (Cygnus ferus) 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 Whooper, 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. ferus, 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