THE 
WEEDER 
 
KAJY ~)W~W~ 
 
Vol. XXXVI                            MARCH, 1932                       
           No. 3 
 
Concerning Swans 
 
WANS are easily our most spectacu- 
lar waterfowl, and excite the inter- 
est of amateur and collector alike. 
It's an interesting thing that visitors to 
Sunnyfields Farm, nine times out of ten, 
are more impressed with our swans than 
with any of the other waterfowl in the 
collection, passing by with little interest 
other waterfowl far rarer and more val- 
uable. Even the rare and attractive 
Red-breasted geese fail to attract the 
attention that is given the swans. A 
pair of swans with young is a center of 
interest for everyone, while a Cereopsis 
goose with five goslings is accorded only 
a passing glance, yet the latter is a rare 
sight in this country, while breeding 
swans with young (Mutes, at least) are 
fairly common. 
There is a great deal of inisapprehen- 
sion regarding swans and their care as 
evidenced by the many inquiries con- 
cerning them which come to my desk 
at all times of the year, and it is with 
this in mind that I am attempting to 
tell a few facts about the various varie- 
ties. 
 
Easily first in numbers and 
general interest is the Royal or 
Mute swan of Europe. Domesti- 
cated for centuries, it is now 
common in confinement but al- 
most extinct as a wild species. 
Frohawk says that it still breeds 
in Sweden and nearby countries, 
but there are probably ten Mutes 
under domestication   to every 
one that is wild. 
In England a couple years ago, 
I was impressed by the fact that 
nearly every body of water had 
at least a few Mute swans on it. 
Sailing on the Thames from Lon- 
don to Kew, one sees Mute swans 
on the river all the way. At 
Bristol an immense aggregation 
of Mute swans greets the visi- 
tor, begging to be fed. In fact in 
all parts of the British Isles, 
wherever there are rivers, lakes 
or other suitable sheets of water. 
this noble and highly ornamental 
bird is to be found. 
The name "Mute" is a misnom- 
 
er as regards the wild bird, for 
 
By C. L. SIBLEY 
0 
Authoritative Information on a 
fascinating subject by a 
well-known breeder 
0 
during the breeding season it utters a 
loud and trumpet-like note. The domes- 
ticated bird utters only a loud hissing, 
but both sexes, when caught, will utter 
a plaintive cry. I can well remember 
catching up a young female to move 
her to another enclosure. She immed- 
iately began to utter her plaintive note, 
and a big old male rushed at me and 
niearly knockect meover with a blow of 
his wing. In this connection, it may be 
said that the blow of a swan's wing is 
sufficient to break a man's leg. 
Once thoroughly mated, swans are 
paired for life. I should say that 
swans are truly mated when they have 
 
Young Male Trumpeter Swan 
 
nested and reared young. Oftentimes a 
pair may appear to be mated, but will 
not breed, and other swans will be put 
into the same enclosure, whereupon the 
male may desert his apparent mate and 
really mate up with a newly arrived 
female. Evidently this apparent mating 
is simply because no other bird of the 
opposite sex is available, and the birds 
make the best of their lot. Swans are 
temperamental about mating. They like 
to choose their mates, and simply put- 
ting a male and female of breeding age 
together doesn't mean that they will 
pair and breed. 
M UTE swans will breed sometimes at 
three years of age, more often not 
until older than that. In mating, a very 
g-o-odmethod is- to put two or three 
males and an equal number of females 
into an enclosure together and leave 
them for several months. They should 
be not less than two and a half years 
old. After several months, there should 
be one really mated pair, sometimes 
two, but it is rarely that all the 
 
couples mate up, and those which 
have not mated should be put 
with other unmated birds, so 
that they may choose mates. 
Among swans there are "old 
maids" and "bachelors." Such 
birds, no matter how attractive 
may be birds of the opposite sex 
which are put in with them, will 
never mate. 
Swans have gotten the reputa- 
tion of being "hard to breed." 
Really they will breed as readily 
as geese, once truly mated and 
of breeding age, and with proper 
surroundings and care. In past 
years many of the swans import- 
ed into this country were un- 
sexed and could not breed, which 
has given rise to the belief that 
swans are difficult to breed. Then 
too, many swans have been kept 
under conditions where it was 
impossible for them to breed. 
Each pair of swans should have 
its own enclosure if kept in 
small quarters. On a large lake, 
 
it is easily noticeable that each 
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