160 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



respects, was an exceedingly favourable one, there was 

 every reason to believe that a brood would be obtained 

 from them. This expectation, however, was not destined 

 to be realized. On the 13th of April, the male Swan, 

 alarmed by some strange dogs which found their way to 

 the reservoir, took flight and did not return ; and on the 

 5th of September, in the same year, the female bird, 

 whose injured wing had recovered its original vigour, 

 quitted the scene of its misfortunes and was seen no 

 more. " In 1830, also, a correspondent of the Mat/azinr 

 of Nat. Hist, says that, on the 31st of January about 

 thirty Swans appeared on Windermere, Coniston, and 

 Esthwaite, and that several were killed ; the measure- 

 ments of one of these, however, show it to have been a 

 Whooper. The only other Bewick's Swan I have come 

 across is one in the possession of Mr. T. Altham, shot 

 from a flock of twenty-four birds on Foulridge reservoir, 

 near Colne, about the year 1857, on the 14th of March. 



GENUS TADOENA. 



COMMON SHELD-DUCK. 



Tadorna cornuta (S. G. Gmelin). 



The Sheld-Duck is a resident species, and is found 

 breeding, in more or less numbers, on the sand-hills of 

 the whole of the Lancashire coast. It almost disappears 

 for a while in autumn, but in winter occurs in flocks of 

 three or four to a dozen individuals, and odd birds often 

 wander to the inland moors and mosses. It is nowhere 

 so common as on the island of Walney, and the partial 



