. A history of British birds . 308 ANSERES. ANATIDJl. ANATID^ Gygnus musicus, Bechstein.*THE WHOOPER, ELK, OK WHISTLING SWAN. Cygnus ferus. Cygnus, Bechsteinf.—Beak of equal breadth throughout its length ; higher thanwide at the base; depressed at the point; both mandibles furnished along thesides with transverse serrated lamellie. Nostrils oblong, lateral, near the middleof the beak. Neck slender, and very long. Legs short, the hind toe smalland free, The Whoopee, so called on account of the peculiar noteuttered by this bird, is a winter visitor to the British Islands, * Gemein. Naturg. D
. A history of British birds . 308 ANSERES. ANATIDJl. ANATID^ Gygnus musicus, Bechstein.*THE WHOOPER, ELK, OK WHISTLING SWAN. Cygnus ferus. Cygnus, Bechsteinf.—Beak of equal breadth throughout its length ; higher thanwide at the base; depressed at the point; both mandibles furnished along thesides with transverse serrated lamellie. Nostrils oblong, lateral, near the middleof the beak. Neck slender, and very long. Legs short, the hind toe smalland free, The Whoopee, so called on account of the peculiar noteuttered by this bird, is a winter visitor to the British Islands, * Gemein. Naturg. Deutschl. iii. p. 830 (1809).t Orn. Taschenb. ii. p. 404 (1803). W HOOPER. 309 arriving in flocks, which are generally more numerous as theweather becomes more severe. Low, in his * Fauna Orca-densis, writing about 1774, says, The Wild Swan is foundat all seasons in Orkney; a few pairs build in the holms ofthe loch of Stenness. These, however, are nothing to theflocks that visit us in October from the more northernclimates, their summer retreats. Part of these
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