AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

287. Cygnus musicus

287. Cygnus musicus.

THE WHOOPER SWAN.

Musicus—musical; from Musa=the Muse.

Male 60"; 19 lbs. Female 52"; 16 1/2 lbs. Legs black. Bill, lores, and base yellow, anterior part black. Frontal feathers prolonged into an angle. Remiges thirty-four. Plumage white, with occasionally some ferruginous yellow on the head.— Female: Similar, but smaller.— Young: Greyish brown. Legs flesh colour. Bill flesh colour, tip and margins black, with orange band across nostrils. Arctic Europe and Asia, migrating to S. Europe, Turkistan, China, and Japan. Resident in Iceland. One specimen of this bird (or of C. davidi) was obtained in Nepal in 1829. Two to seven eggs (4 1/2 x 2.85), white. Hybrids with G. olor. (B. 1578. H. & M. iii. 47.)

Also C. bewicki. Male 42" to 50". Female 39" to 40". Bewick's Swan, named after Thomas Bewick (b. 1753, d. 1828), author of the History of British Birds. Similar to C. musicus, but smaller. Bare space from eye to nostril deep yellow. Breeds in Arctic Siberia, and migrates to Great Britain, W. and C. Europe, Caspian, S. Siberia, China, and Japan. Two to three eggs (4 x 2-57), white.

C. americanus. 53" to 55". The Whistling Swan. Legs black. Bill black. Lores black, with yellow spot. Plumage white. Head, and sometimes the neck and below, tinged rusty. Tail of twenty feathers. N. America, accidental in Scotland.

C. buccinator. 58 1/2" to 68". The Trumpeter Swan. Legs, bill, and lores black. Plumage white. Head, and sometimes neck and below, tinged rusty. Tail of twenty-four feathers. N. America.

BookTitle: 
Game, Shore And Water Birds Of India
Reference: 
Le Messurier, Augustus. Game, Shore, and Water Birds of India Fourth Edition, 1904.
Title in Book: 
287. Cygnus musicus
Book Author: 
A Le Messurier
CatNo: 
287
Year: 
1904
Page No: 
252
Common name: 
Whooper Swan
M_ID: 
321
M_CN: 
Whooper Swan
M_SN: 
Cygnus cygnus
Volume: 
4th ed.
Term name: 
id: 
13139

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