Ages to which Birds live. 33 



that it had been taken and released by the Elector of 

 Cologne in the year 1737^^' i.e. a Heron of 30 years of age. 

 But nine years before that, viz., in the spring of 1728, a 

 Heron was taken in Bavaria which had been ringed 60 years 

 before by Duke Ferdinand the Elector, according to Keysler^s 

 * Travels through Germany/ i. p. 70. As Keysler says he 

 was at Starrenberg Palace the year following, it was no doubt 

 there that he got the particulars first-hand. The Crane has 

 lived to be 40, and my father has recorded a Black Stork 

 of 30. 



Anseres. 



Tame Geese are long-lived (see p. 24) and easy to verify, 

 and by inference wild Geese would be long-lived. Two cen- 

 turies ago Francis Willughby had the story of a domestic 

 Goose which was 80, and was then killed for its destructive- 

 ness though yet sound and lusty, from a friend who is spoken 

 of in two places as "of very good credit ^^ and "undoubted 

 fidelity" (' Ornithology/ pp. 14,358). There is really no 

 reason whatever to question it, especially as BufFon considers 

 that a Goose once reached 100, and Pennant was equally aware 

 of what he terms a vast longevity. There was ouce a Goose 

 at the Saracen's Head Inn at Paisley, in Renfrew, N.B,, 

 computed to be nearly 100 (E,. Lee). 



Mute Swans have for centuries had the credit of turning 

 into '■ Methuselahs/ even to the extent of 300 years (Aldro- 

 vandus), and Norfolk waters have produced some supposed 

 patriarchs, one of which is in Norwich Museum. Naumanu 

 alludes to Swans from 50 to 100 years old, and Broderip, in 

 his ' Zoological Recreations,' after citing a Swan at Shep- 

 perton supposed to be over 100, and another of 50, quotes 

 from the ' Morning Post ' the following : — ^' The beginning 

 of last week [July 1840] an exceedingly well-known cha- 

 racter departed this life, namely Old Jack, the gigantic and 

 venerable Swan with which the public have been so long 

 acquainted on the canal in the enclosure of St. Jameses Park, 

 at the advanced age of 70 years. Old Jack was hatched 

 some time about the year 1770 on the piece of water attached 

 to Buckingham House." 



SER. VII. VOL. V. D 



