242 Mr, R. T. Gunther on the Acclimatisation [Ibis, 



The Australian swan, on the other hand, was swimming 

 about with neck erect, though evidently greatly disliking 

 the wind. 



The unusually cold winter has severely tested the powers 

 of endurance of our guest from the latitudes of the Swan 

 River, where the climate, as indicated by an average winter 

 temperature of about 55°, must resemble that of Gibraltar. 

 Since 1904 we have been keeping a pair of these handsome 

 birds, the gift of the Vintners' Company, upon the river 

 Cherwell at Magdalen College. Since the outbreak of war 

 and the departure of the undergraduates, the male bird has 

 preferred the wider reaches of the Isis, and especially that 

 more open meadow-land known to rowing men as the 

 " Green Bank," to the narrower water-lanes of the Cherwell 

 overhung with trees. It may be that in wet weather the 

 constant drip of water from the overarching branches was 

 an annoyance ; perhaps the attraction was, — to be seen by, 

 and yet remain aloof from, the numerous company of 

 Thames swans (sixteen on occasion in this reach this 

 winter) . 



On Sunday January 28 the main river became blocked 

 with ice-floes and ground-ice, from the "Gut" to Magdalen 

 Barge, By next morning the barrier extended up to my 

 house on the river at Folly Bridge, and one Black Swan 

 was cut off from his feediug-place at the ]Magdalen water- 

 walks by rough pack-ice. He soon found consolation in 

 making cupboard love to tlie cook at the water-gate, and 

 consumed scraps of bread in quantities that were positively 

 unpatriotic. During Monday night the thermometer fell 

 to twelve degrees below freezing, and on the following 

 morning our attention was attracted by the crowd that 

 gathers on the bridge for an unusual sight, such as when 

 a fish is caught, or a boy tumbles into the river, or a barge 

 sticks under the bridge and bargee language won't move it. 

 The sight in this case was the Black Swan swimming about 

 in perplexity, unable to open his red bill, which was firmly 

 frozen up with a thick pendant icicle four or five inches in 



