158 THE BIRDS OF NORTEAMPTON SHIRE 



of the record for more than foiu'teen years ; it 

 was originally communicated to me by Mr. A. G. 

 Elliot, of Stamford, in the following words : — " A 

 beautiful specimen of Bewick's Swan was shot by 

 I. O. C. Knapp, Esq., Tixover Hall ; I saw this bird 

 shot, and fetched it out of the Welland ; I stuffed 

 it, and he has it still in his possession," The 

 date of Mr. Elliot's letter to me is March 4, 1876, 

 and I observe that Mr. Browne, on the authority of 

 Lord Gainsborough, who obtained his information 

 also from Mr. Elliot, adds that the bird weighed 

 17 lbs., w^as killed in April 1870, and is now 

 preserved at Chentrey, Bucks. On January 25, 1879, 

 Mr. G. Hunt, of Wadenhoe, met with a flock of 

 sixteen Bewick's Swans, during a spell of very severe 

 frost and snow, in the meadows above Oundle, and 

 secured two of them with a lucky ' right and left ' : 

 one of these birds fell on to its destroyer and knocked 

 him down upon the frozen snow. This flock remained 

 about the neighbourhood for several days, and on 

 the 28th Mr. Hunt got close up to the birds as they 

 swam on the Nen very near the north-western corner 

 of the deer-park at Lilford, and again secured a very 

 beautiful pair, which I presented to the Northampton 

 Museum ; the two first mentioned are preserved at 

 Wadenhoe. Mr. Hunt, in many conversations with 

 me on these events, informed me that all the 

 members of this flock were pure white, and that they 

 kept up an incessant loud 'trumpeting' when on 

 wing ; the surviving twelve were last seen in our 

 neighbourhood on January 29, the day after the 

 shooting of the second pair. The most noticeable 

 external differences between this species and the 

 Whooper are those of dimension, in which respect 



