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49-453: 6 living, see text . Cygnanser Kretzoi , 1957 Swans are birds of the genus Cygnus within the family Anatidae . The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks . Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini . Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae . There are six living and many extinct species of swan; in addition, there

98-461: A stork and some large bird of unknown affinity (due to the bad state of preservation of the referred material). Many of the cultural aspects refer to the mute swan of Europe. Perhaps the best-known story about a swan is the fairy tale " The Ugly Duckling ". Swans are often a symbol of love or fidelity because of their long-lasting, apparently monogamous relationships. See Wagner 's famous swan-related operas Lohengrin and Parsifal . Swan meat

147-583: A "rare bird, as rare on earth as a black swan" (black swans being completely unknown in the Northern Hemisphere until Dutch explorers reached Australia in the 1600s), from which comes the Latin phrase rara avis (rare bird). The Irish legend of the Children of Lir is about a stepmother who transformed her children into swans for 900 years. In the legend The Wooing of Etain the king of

196-428: A 3% rate for pairs that breed successfully and 9% for pairs that do not. The pair bonds are maintained year-round, even in gregarious and migratory species like the tundra swan , which congregate in large flocks in the wintering grounds. Swans' nests are on the ground near water and about a metre (3') across. Unlike many other ducks and geese, the male helps with the nest construction, and will also take turns incubating

245-561: A counterclockwise pattern. Hurricanes and tropical storms (massive low-pressure systems) spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. The shadow of a sundial moves clockwise on latitudes north of the subsolar point and anticlockwise to the south. During the day at these latitudes, the Sun tends to rise to its maximum at a southerly position. Between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator,

294-576: A swan who was devoted to him. In Latin American literature , the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío (1867–1916) consecrated the swan as a symbol of artistic inspiration by drawing attention to the constancy of swan imagery in Western culture , beginning with the rape of Leda and ending with Wagner 's Lohengrin . Darío's most famous poem in this regard is Blasón – "Coat of Arms" (1896), and his use of

343-638: A white body with a black neck. The legs of most swans are typically a dark blackish-grey colour, except for the South American black-necked swan, which has pink legs. Bill colour varies: the four subarctic species have black bills with varying amounts of yellow, and all the others are patterned red and black. Although birds do not have teeth, swans, like other Anatidae, have beaks with serrated edges that look like small jagged "teeth" as part of their beaks used for catching and eating aquatic plants and algae, but also molluscs, small fish, frogs, and worms. In

392-544: A word of the same meaning. An adult male is a cob , from Middle English cobbe (leader of a group); an adult female is a pen . A group of swans is called a bevy or a wedge. Swans are the largest extant members of the waterfowl family Anatidae and are among the largest flying birds. The largest living species, including the mute swan , trumpeter swan , and whooper swan , can reach a length of over 1.5 m (59 in) and weigh over 15 kg (33 lb). Their wingspans can be over 3.1 m (10 ft). Compared to

441-534: Is a species known as the coscoroba swan which is no longer considered one of the true swans . Swans usually mate for life , although separation sometimes occurs, particularly following nesting failure, and if a mate dies, the remaining swan will take up with another. The number of eggs in each clutch ranges from three to eight. The genus Cygnus was introduced in 1764 by the French naturalist François Alexandre Pierre de Garsault . The English word swan , akin to

490-425: Is composed of the roots, tubers, stems and leaves of aquatic and submerged plants. A familiar behaviour of swans is that they mate for life, and typically bond even before they reach sexual maturity. Trumpeter swans, for example, can live as long as 24 years and only start breeding at the age of 4–7, forming monogamous pair bonds as early as 20 months. "Divorce", though rare, does occur; one study of mute swans shows

539-609: Is popularly believed the British monarch is the only person allowed to eat swans in the United Kingdom. Swans feature strongly in mythology . In Greek mythology , the story of Leda and the Swan recounts that Helen of Troy was conceived in a union of Zeus disguised as a swan and Leda , Queen of Sparta . Other references in classical literature include the belief that, upon death, the mute swan would sing beautifully—hence

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588-637: Is taken as the period from the December solstice (typically December 21 UTC ) to the March equinox (typically March 20 UTC), while summer is taken as the period from the June solstice through to the September equinox (typically on 23 September UTC). The dates vary each year due to the difference between the calendar year and the astronomical year . Within the Northern Hemisphere, oceanic currents can change

637-519: Is thought to have resulted from extreme climate fluctuations or the arrival of superior predators and competitors. The Northern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white plumage, but the Southern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australian black swan ( Cygnus atratus ) is completely black except for the white flight feathers on its wings; the chicks of black swans are light grey. The South American black-necked swan has

686-531: Is to be in the world without getting attached to it, just as a swan's feather does not get wet although it is in water. The Sanskrit word for swan is hamsa and the "Raja Hamsam" or the Royal Swan is the vehicle of Devi Saraswati , which symbolises the Sattva Guna or purity par excellence. The swan, if offered a mixture of milk and water, is said to be able to drink the milk alone. Therefore, Saraswati,

735-844: The Lay of Volund , part of the Poetic Edda , also features swan maidens. In the Finnish epic Kalevala , a swan lives in the Tuoni River located in Tuonela , the underworld realm of the dead. According to the story, whoever killed a swan would perish as well. Jean Sibelius composed the Lemminkäinen Suite based on the Kalevala , with the second piece entitled Swan of Tuonela (Tuonelan joutsen) . Today, five flying swans are

784-465: The Northern temperate zone . The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold. However, a temperate climate can have very unpredictable weather. Tropical regions (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, 0° latitude) are generally hot all year round and tend to experience a rainy season during the summer months, and a dry season during

833-580: The Sidhe (subterranean-dwelling, supernatural beings) transforms himself and the most beautiful woman in Ireland, Etain, into swans to escape from the king of Ireland and Ireland's armies. The swan has recently been depicted on an Irish commemorative coin . Swans are also present in Irish literature in the poetry of W. B. Yeats . "The Wild Swans at Coole" has a heavy focus on the mesmerising characteristics of

882-541: The Solar System , north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar System as Earth's North Pole . Due to Earth's axial tilt of 23.439281°, there is a seasonal variation in the lengths of the day and night. There is also a seasonal variation in temperatures, which lags the variation in day and night. Conventionally, winter in the Northern Hemisphere

931-583: The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago. Earth is currently in an interglacial period of the Quaternary , called the Holocene . The glaciations that occurred during the glacial period covered many areas of the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic is a region around the North Pole (90° latitude ). Its climate is characterized by cold winters and cool summers. Precipitation mostly comes in

980-442: The last ice age ) and great similarity between the taxa. C. melancoryphus (Black-necked swan) C. atratus (Latham, 1790) (Black swan) C. olor (Gmelin, 1789) (Mute swan) C. buccinator Richardson, 1832 (Trumpeter swan) C. cygnus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Whooper swan) C. columbianus (Ord, 1815) (Tundra swan) Genus Cygnus The coscoroba swan ( Coscoroba coscoroba ) from South America,

1029-492: The westerlies , push the currents back to the east, producing a closed clockwise loop. Its surface is 60.7% water, compared with 80.9% water in the case of the Southern Hemisphere , and it contains 67.3% of Earth's land. The continents of North America and mainland Eurasia are located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere, together with about two-thirds of Africa and a small part of South America . During

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1078-516: The 2.5 million years of the Pleistocene , numerous cold phases called glacials ( Quaternary ice age ), or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in Europe and North America , occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. The long glacial periods were separated by more temperate and shorter interglacials which lasted about 10,000–15,000 years. The last cold episode of

1127-529: The Beef-Pie." Swans being raised for food were sometimes kept in swan pits . The Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady , a religious confraternity which existed in 's-Hertogenbosch in the late Middle Ages, had "sworn members", also called "swan-brethren" because they used to donate a swan for the yearly banquet. Based on a mistaken belief that the British monarch owns all the swans in Britain, it

1176-629: The German Schwan , Dutch zwaan and Swedish svan , is derived from the Indo-European root *swen ( H ) ( ' to sound, to sing ' ). Young swans are known as cygnets , from Old French cigne or cisne (diminutive suffix et ' little ' ), from the Latin word cygnus , a variant form of cycnus ' swan ' , itself from the Greek κύκνος kýknos ,

1225-709: The Pleistocene taxa from North America would be placed in Olor . Several prehistoric species have been described, mostly from the Northern Hemisphere. In the Mediterranean, the leg bones of the giant swan ( C. falconeri ) were found on the islands of Malta and Sicily ; it may have been over 2 metres from tail to bill, which was taller (though not heavier) than the contemporary local dwarf elephants ( Palaeoloxodon falconeri ). The supposed fossil swans "Cygnus" bilinicus and "Cygnus" herrenthalsi were, respectively,

1274-663: The Sun can be seen to the north, directly overhead, or to the south at noon, depending on the time of year. In the Southern Hemisphere, the midday Sun is predominantly in the north. When viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, the Moon appears inverted compared to a view from the Southern Hemisphere. The North Pole faces away from the Galactic Center of the Milky Way . This results in the Milky Way being sparser and dimmer in

1323-704: The Vedas, swans are said to reside in the summer on Lake Manasarovar and migrate to Indian lakes for the winter. They are believed to possess some powers, such as the ability to eat pearls. Swans are intimately associated with the divine twins in Indo-European religions, and it is thought that in Proto-Indo-European times , swans were a solar symbol associated with the divine twins and the original Indo-European sun goddess . Mikl%C3%B3s Kretzoi Kretzoi studied Arts and natural sciences at

1372-449: The closely related geese, they are much larger and have proportionally larger feet and necks. Adults also have a patch of unfeathered skin between the eyes and bill. The sexes are alike in plumage , but males are generally bigger and heavier than females. The biggest species of swan ever was the extinct Cygnus falconeri , a flightless giant swan known from fossils found on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Sicily . Its disappearance

1421-431: The eggs. Alongside the whistling ducks , swans are the only anatids that will do this. The average egg size (for the mute swan) is 113 × 74 mm ( 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 x 3 in), weighing 340 g (12 oz), in a clutch size of 4 to 7, and an incubation period of 34–45 days. Swans are highly protective of their nests. They will viciously attack anything that they perceive as a threat to their chicks, including humans. One man

1470-652: The form of snow. Areas inside the Arctic Circle (66°34′ latitude) experience some days in summer when the Sun never sets, and some days during the winter when it never rises. The duration of these phases varies from one day for locations right on the Arctic Circle to several months near the Pole, which is the middle of the Northern Hemisphere. Between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer (23°26′ latitude) lies

1519-582: The goddess of knowledge, is seen riding the swan because the swan thus symbolizes Viveka , i.e. prudence and discrimination between the good and the bad or between the eternal and the transient. This is seen as a great quality, as shown by this Sanskrit verse: It is mentioned several times in the Vedic literature, and persons who have attained great spiritual capabilities are sometimes called Paramahamsa ("Supreme Swan") on account of their spiritual grace and ability to travel between various spiritual worlds. In

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1568-542: The mute swan and black-necked swan, both sexes have a fleshy lump at the base of their bills on the upper mandible , known as the knob, which is larger in males and is condition dependent, changing seasonally. Swans are generally found in temperate environments, rarely occurring in the tropics. Four (or five) species occur in the Northern Hemisphere , one species is found in Australia, one extinct species

1617-401: The only species in its genus, is not a true swan. Its phylogenetic position is not fully resolved; it is in some aspects more similar to geese and shelducks . The fossil record of the genus Cygnus is quite impressive, although allocation to the subgenera is often tentative; as indicated above, at least the early forms probably belong to the C. olor – Southern Hemisphere lineage, whereas

1666-722: The outbreak of the Second World War . Kretzoi moved to the National Museum of Hungary where he was curator of the Mineralogy and Paleontology departments until he began work at the Geological Institute of Hungary in 1950. Kretzoi was the director of the Geological Institute of Hungary from 1956 to 1958. From the mid-1960s he led the " digs " at Rudabánya where a number of Anthropoid fossil remains were discovered. The genus Kretzoiarctos

1715-459: The phrase swan song . The mute swan is also one of the sacred birds of Apollo , whose associations stem both from the nature of the bird as a symbol of light, as well as the notion of a "swan song". The god is often depicted riding a chariot pulled by or composed of swans in his ascension from Delos . In the second century, the Roman poet Juvenal made a sarcastic reference to a good woman being

1764-578: The southern species branched off is not known. The mute swan is closest to the Southern Hemisphere Cygnus ; its habits of carrying the neck curved (not straight) and the wings fluffed (not flush) as well as its bill colour and knob indicate that its closest living relative is the black swan. Given the biogeography and appearance of the subgenus Olor, it seems likely that these are of a more recent origin, as evidenced shows by their modern ranges (which were mostly uninhabitable during

1813-790: The swan made it a symbol for the Modernismo poetic movement that dominated Spanish language poetry from the 1880s until the First World War. Such was the dominance of Modernismo in Spanish language poetry that the Mexican poet Enrique González Martínez attempted to announce the end of Modernismo with a sonnet provocatively entitled, Tuércele el cuello al cisne – "Wring the Swan's Neck" (1910). Swans are revered in Hinduism and are compared to saintly persons whose chief characteristic

1862-486: The swan. Yeats also recounts the myth of Leda and the Swan in the poem of the same name . In Norse mythology , two swans drink from the sacred Well of Urd in the realm of Asgard , home of the gods . According to the Prose Edda , the water of this well is so pure and holy that all things that touch it turn white, including this original pair of swans and all others descended from them. The poem Volundarkvida , or

1911-462: The symbol of the Nordic countries ; the whooper swan ( Cygnus cygnus ) is the national bird of Finland; and the mute swan is the national bird of Denmark. The ballet Swan Lake is among the most canonic of classical ballets. Based on the 1875–76 score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , the most promulgated choreographic version was created by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (1895), the premiere of which

1960-532: The then Pázmány Péter University , Budapest from 1925 to 1929. While still a student, he worked as a volunteer at the Geological Institute of Hungary. In 1930 he graduated from the University of Pécs with a PhD in Palaeontology, Geology and Geography . In 1933 he commenced work with the "Hungarian-American Oil Inc" as a geologist and geophysicist . He remained at Hungarian-American Oil until

2009-439: The trumpeter swans are almost entirely migratory. There is some evidence that the black-necked swan is migratory over part of its range, but detailed studies have not established whether these movements are long or short-range migration. Swans feed in water and on land. They are almost entirely herbivorous, although they may eat small amounts of aquatic animals. In the water, food is obtained by up-ending or dabbling, and their diet

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2058-500: The weather patterns that affect many factors within the north coast. For the same reason, flows of air down toward the northern surface of the Earth tend to spread across the surface in a clockwise pattern. Thus, clockwise air circulation is characteristic of high pressure weather cells in the Northern Hemisphere. Conversely, air rising from the northern surface of the Earth (creating a region of low pressure) tends to draw air toward it in

2107-462: The weather patterns that affect many factors within the north coast. Such events include El Niño–Southern Oscillation . Trade winds blow from east to west just above the equator. The winds pull surface water with them, creating currents, which flow westward due to the Coriolis effect . The currents then bend to the right, heading north. At about 30 degrees north latitude, a different set of winds,

2156-489: The winter months. In the Northern Hemisphere, objects moving across or above the surface of the Earth tend to turn to the right because of the Coriolis effect . As a result, large-scale horizontal flows of air or water tend to form clockwise-turning gyres . These are best seen in ocean circulation patterns in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Within the Northern Hemisphere, oceanic currents can change

2205-642: Was danced by the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The ballet's lead dual roles of Odette (white swan)/Odile (black swan) represent good and evil and are among the most challenging roles created in Romantic classical ballet. The ballet is in the repertories of ballet companies around the world. A swan is one of the attributes of St. Hugh of Lincoln , based on the story of

2254-747: Was found in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands , and one species is distributed in southern South America. They are absent from tropical Asia, Central America, northern South America and the entirety of Africa. One species, the mute swan, has been introduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand. Several species are migratory , either wholly or partly so. The mute swan is a partial migrant, being resident over areas of Western Europe but wholly migratory in Eastern Europe and Asia. The whooper swan and tundra swan are wholly migratory, and

2303-467: Was named after Miklós Kretzoi. Its type species Kretzoiarctos beatrix was previously classified as a member of Agriarctos , and Agriarctos was described by Kretzoi. This article about a Hungarian scientist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator . For other planets in

2352-567: Was regarded as a luxury food in England during the reign of Elizabeth I . A recipe for baked swan survives from that time: "To bake a Swan Scald it and take out the bones, and parboil it, then season it very well with Pepper, Salt and Ginger, then lard it, and put it in a deep Coffin of Rye Paste with store of Butter, close it and bake it very well, and when it is baked, fill up the Vent-hole with melted Butter, and so keep it; serve it in as you do

2401-566: Was suspected to have drowned in such an attack. Swans' intraspecific aggressive behaviour is shown more frequent than interspecific behaviour for food and shelter. The aggression with other species is shown more in tundra swans . Evidence suggests that the genus Cygnus evolved in Europe or western Eurasia during the Miocene , spreading all over the Northern Hemisphere until the Pliocene . When

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