250 ALLEN S NATURALLSrS LIBRARY. 



and sometimes almost set your ear on edge ; but they are very 

 short, three or four trumpet-blasts, keeping time with the 

 upward and downward strokes of the wing. It is not known 

 that the food of the Whooper differs from that of its more 

 southern ally : it consists chiefly of aquatic plants, water- 

 insects, and molluscs." 



The Rev. H. A. Macpherson, in his "Vertebrate Fauna of 

 Lake land," has given the following interesting note on the 

 Wild Swan as observed by him in England : — 



"It was on the 7th of February, 1891, that visiting Monk- 

 hill Lough, I found four Wild Swans swimming on the edge of 

 the sedge. Hearing them ' clanging,^ I at once conjectured 

 that they must be Whoopers. Soon after my arrival I had 

 irrefutable evidence of their specific identity in their well- 

 defined ^ hoopiftg,^ the action which accompanied this call 

 being already familiar to me, as studied in a pinioned bird at 

 the Zoological Gardens. They were feeding in company, and 

 all four necks were sometimes straightened or bent forward at 

 the same instant. For a few moments they would observe 

 silence, then they ' hooped,' and, vociferating their peculiar 

 clang, they all fell to feeding again. So closely did they herd 

 together that two birds might often be mistaken for one. 

 They appeared to be well contented with their new quarters, 

 paying no attention to the barking of a dog. Once, indeed, 

 one of the Whoopers seemed to be rather startled by the action 

 of a Coot, which suddenly bobbed up beside it : the Swan 

 flapped its wings uneasily, but did not attempt to fly. These 

 Whoopers swam rapidly through the water, the head and neck 

 slightly thrown back, and the black butt of the tarsus standing 

 out in bold relief against the white body-colour.- Their necks 

 were supple and arched sinuously, held erect when the birds 

 were at ' attention,' arched when they fed, but twisted in 

 various forms to rearrange the plumage. Watching the four 

 birds, you could see at the same moment one fellow resting 

 with neck erect, its next neighbour arching its neck, a third 

 shooting its neck forward in the shape of the letter S. On 

 the whole there existed a wonderful spontaneity of action be- 

 tween these birds. 



" On the 9th of February the four Whoopers were browsing 

 in the sedge-beds in the centre of the lough. A solitary Mute 



