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Bewick's Swan is much smaller than the Hooper, but the great outward distinction is, that in the Hooper the yellow at the base of the bill extends to and includes the nostrils, whereas in Bewick's Swan the yellow occupies a very small portion of the base of the bill, not extending so far as the nostrils: this is always sufficient to distinguish the two, and is almost the only exterior distinction, but on dissection the anatomical structure, especially of the trachea, shows material difference between the two.
It is the smallest of the three, rarely measuring over fifty-two inches in length, and weighing only fourteen pounds, while the hooper is over twenty pounds in weight, and the trumpeter is often obtained of the enormous weight of thirty! "Bewick's swan is also said to be identical with one of Brehm's singing swans.
I am very proud of you, Oom John, and I want the fact that you were my guest when I was President, and that you and I looked at birds together, recorded there and don't forget that I showed you the blue grosbeak and the Bewick's wren, and almost all the other birds I said I would! Ever yours,
Locker was more at home, more entirely his own delightful self, when he was calling your attention to some humorous touch in one of Bewick's tail-pieces, or to some plump figure in a group by his favourite Stothard than when handling a Michael Angelo drawing or an amazing Blake.
Professor Ansted includes Bewick's Swan in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is, however, no specimen at present in the Museum. WILD DUCK. Anas boschas, Linnaeus. French, "Canard sauvage." -The Wild Duck is an occasional autumn and winter visitant. I have never shot one myself in the Islands, but I have several times seen Guernsey-killed ones in the market.
He also likes books of voyages and travels, and Robinson Crusoe. In art, he greatly esteems Bewick's wood-cuts, and Waterloo's sylvan etchings. But he sometimes takes a higher tone, and gives his mind fair play.
In all probability the other must have been Bewick's Swan, which no doubt has occasionally occurred, perhaps more frequently than is supposed, though not so frequently as the Hooper. Probably the difference between the two is not sufficiently known; it may, therefore, be as well to point out the distinctions.
There were mocking-birds, the most attractive of all birds, and blue grosbeaks, and cardinals and summer redbirds, instead of scarlet tanagers, and those wonderful singers the Bewick's wrens, and Carolina wrens. All these I was able to show John Burroughs when he came to visit us; although, by the way, he did not appreciate as much as we did one set of inmates of the cottage the flying squirrels.
At the end of Bewick's description of the Green Sandpiper there is a very exact representation of a covert feather of the tail, and an inner-wing covert, which will give a better idea of their appearance than a page of letterpress.
Glancing at the bookcases, I thought I could distinguish the two volumes of Bewick's British Birds occupying their old place on the third shelf, and Gulliver's Travels and the Arabian Nights ranged just above. The inanimate objects were not changed; but the living things had altered past recognition.
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