purchased of Mr. Castang, the dealer in birds, whose name
was referred to* under the article on the Hooping Swan, a
pair of these Polish Swans with a young bird of their own
brood, and this' cygnet was jalso white. This appeared to be
a specific peculiarity worthy of consideration; the parent
birds were remarkable'besides, in having the legs, toes, and
their intervening membranes of a pale, ash-grey colour; the
black tubercle at the base of the beak was of small size, and
there is a slight difference in the nostrils, the elongated openings
of which do not reach the black colour at the base of the
beak, on each side, but are entirely surrounded'by the orange
colour of the beak, as shown in the representation. Unfat?.
tunately, both the old female and the young bird died in the
following winter-. The old male, now in his ninth or tenth
year, at the least, has but a small tubercle at the pase of the
beak, and his legs and feet, though a little darker than fifll
merly, are still of a pale slate grey. - This bird has never
paired ;* and can-scarcely be said to associate with any of the
Mute Swans on the same water.
In the months of January and February 1888, Swans of
all sorts-were more abundant than I ever remember .to; have
seen them, and I have already adverted, to the great number
of Hoopers and Bewick’s- Swans which were, seen and killed
at that season. The more intense the frost, the farther south
do the usual winter visiters extend their range; yrhile new* or
very rare species from extreme northern latitudes are. occa-<
sionally obtained. .
During the severe weather-of January 1888» several flocks
of these Polish. Swans were seen pursuing a southern course
along the line of our north-east coast, from Scotland to ; the
mouth of the Thames, and several specimens were obtained.
The specimen I ; exhibited, by permission, at the evening
meeting, of the Zoological Society," belonged to the Rev.. L;
B. Larking, of Ryarsh Vicarage, near Maidstone, for whom
it had been preserved by Mr. Leadbeater. It was one of
four, shot 5 on the Medwa^, near Snodland Church, where a
flock of thirty, and several smaller flocks were seen.
The circumstance of these flocks being seen, without any
observable difference in the specimens obtained, all of which
Were distinct from our Mute Swan; the fact, also, that the
cygnets, ;.as far as observed, were of a pure white colour, like
ihe parent birds, and did not assume, at any age, the grey
colour borne for the greater part of 'the first two years by the
young of the other specieS' Ofr'Swans ; and an anatomical dis-,
tinetion in the form of . the cranium, to be hereafter noticed,
which was described by Mr. Pelerin, in the Magazine of
Natural History, induced me to consider this Swan entitled
to rank as a distinct species, and, in reference to the unchangeable
colour of the plumage, I proposed for it the name
of Gy gnus immutafiilis. ■
I have very recently been favoured with a letter from the
Earl of Derby, who. some years since purchased a pair of
Polish Swans in London, and sent them to Knowsley. The
female In this instance also, unfortunately, died. The male
paired with a Mute Swan, and a brood was produced; but the
hybrids, though now old enough, havé neither paired among
themselves nor with any of the Mute Swans on the same
water.
I have heard of one Polish Swan shot in Cambridgeshire,
and’-now preserved in the Wisbeach Museum ; and another
Was shot in the winter of 1840-41. This species, however,
does not appear to have been distinguished elsewhere from
the Mute Swan, and. I am therefore unable to name any
foreign geographical localities as producing it, .beyond the
probability ?öf its inhabiting those countries in the vicinity
of the Baltic.
In the adult bird the beak is reddish-orange; the nail,
lateral margins,- nostrils, and. base of the upper mandible