136 



close of last week the Swan-Master to the Vintners went from 

 Kingston, and after jndicious reconnoitring — for swans are 

 awkward customers to capture, particularly when the cares of 

 a family are upon them — the old birds were secureh^ sewn into 

 a couple of open flag baskets such as are used by carpenters. 

 In these, possiblj^ to them undignified vehicles, they accom- 

 plished the railway journey to Kingston. 



In view of the approaching holida}' they were for a time 

 quartered at the rear of a well - known Kingston boathouse. 

 Having been released to the freedom of the Thames on Tuesday 

 morning the parent birds have practically lost that greyness of 

 tint naturally associated with a Pimlico stream, and as I saw 

 them last night defending their young against the intrusion of 

 a puppy from the Canbury Gardens, they are assuming airs 

 commensurate with their new aristocratic environment. 



There appears hovirever to have been some 

 difificiilty attending the satisfactory final adjustment 

 of their new environment to these swans. " From in- 

 formation received " the older swanny inhabitants of 

 the particular reach proved rather more formidable 

 opponents to the new arrivals than the aforesaid 

 puppy dog. I hear that dire strife and trouble was 

 the order of the day for some time, but the ultimate 

 result I have not been able to gather. Probably the 

 cygnets suffered. 



THE SHORTAGE OF NIGHTINGALES:— The 



same newspaper, which by the way is far in advance 

 of most lay journals in the accuracy of its natural 

 history, as may readily be surmised from the fact that 

 W. J. Lucas of Dragon Fly fame is a regular contribu- 

 tor, gives on June 9th the following explanation of the 

 alleged decrease in the number of nightingales. 



The "shortage" of nightingales, over which one of the 

 London daily papers was inclined to shed a tear of lamentation 

 on Wednesday last, is really not a new fact to those who have 



