BEWICK’S SWAN.
Long confused with the preceding Swan, the distinctness of the present species was recognised by Yarrell, who named it Cygnus bewicki, in honour of Thomas Bewick, naturalist and engraver on wood, known to most readers as the author of the British Birds and British Quadrupeds. Bewick’s Swan is only a winter visitor to the coasts and inland waters of the British Islands, spending the summer far away in the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia. The habits of this Swan are very similar to those of the preceding species. The bird may be distinguished from the Hooper by its much smaller size, and by the yellow patch at the base of the bill being much less in extent, never extending below the nostrils. Bewick’s Swan is perhaps not quite so maritime as the Hooper, preferring the large inland sheets of water, and more or less sheltered lochs and fjords, to the open sea. It is seen in greatest numbers in Ireland and Scotland, and during severe winters visits us in greatest numbers. At these times some of the flocks are remarkably large, numbering hundreds or even thousands of individuals. Its food is not known to differ from that of the preceding species; its flight is equally rapid; and its note, short and musical, has been syllabled as tong. Imposing as these birds are, and by no means rare, they can scarcely be classed as very prominent features of the bird-life of the sea, so far as ordinary observation goes.
Bewick’s Swan reaches its Arctic summer haunts towards the end of May. Although its eggs have been obtained on the islands in the deltas of the Petchora and the Yenesay, these were taken by unscientific observers. Mr. Trevor-Battye, so far as I know, was the first naturalist to see the nest and take the eggs of Bewick’s Swan, on the island of Kolguev. This nest—of which he gives a beautiful figure[7]—he describes as a mound, about two and a-half feet high, and four and a-half feet in diameter at the base, perfectly smooth, and tapering to the circular top, which was not more than two feet across. It was made of little bunches of green moss, with a few scraps of lichen, and a little dry grass pulled up with the moss. The cavity at the top was lined with dead grass, mixed with a little down. This nest contained three eggs. These are smaller and whiter than those of the Hooper.
Petrels
THE STORMY PETREL. Chapter vi.
CHAPTER VI.
PETRELS.
Petrels—Characteristics—Changes of Plumage—Fulmar Petrel—Fork-tailed Petrel—Stormy Petrel—Manx Shearwater.
Of all sea-birds, the Petrels are the most pelagic. They are the birds of the wide ocean, even showing small partiality for narrow seas, and chiefly frequenting for breeding purposes only such spots as face the widest expanses of water. They are the most marine of birds, yet they form one of the least apparent features in the bird-life of the sea, and more especially when that bird-life is studied from the coast. Their crepuscular, or nocturnal, habits during their short visits to the land to breed, their sombre hues, their low flight, just above the waves, all combine in rendering these birds exceptionally difficult of observation. The Petrels present such exclusively distinctive characters that many systematists relegate them to an order by themselves. This order is termed Tubinares, because the birds contained in it have the nostrils tubular—a character which serves, at a glance, to distinguish a Petrel from all other species. Other external characters are their hooked beak, webbed feet, and long wings. More than a hundred species of Petrels are known to science, which are dispersed throughout the seas and oceans of the world. The young, as far as is known, are hatched covered with down, but they remain in the nest until capable of flight. These birds moult once in the year. None of the species are very remarkable for bright colouration, although, in some, the colours—brown, black, gray, and white—are strongly contrasted. Several species of Petrel wander occasionally to the British seas, but only four species breed within our area, and of these we now propose to treat.