MUTE SWAN. 71 



its wings with great violence against the oars, and at 

 the persons rowing the same. At length a fine spaniel 

 sprang from the boat into the water, and the swan im- 

 mediately attacked the dog, and would have succeeded 

 in drowning him but for the exertions of persons on 

 board." On the same water, within the last few years, 

 an old male swan was in the habit of attacking strangers 

 in boats, who passed near the shore on which its nest 

 was located. This bird was seen by Rich on one occa- 

 sion to seize a man from behind as he sat in a low 

 counter-stern boat, and gaining a foothold on the wood-, 

 work, begin striking at him with his wings, until driven 

 off with blows from an oar. Country people were often 

 afraid to venture across that portion of the broad for 

 fear of this bird, unless accompanied by a marshman, 

 when no opposition was offered ; but his fierceness had 

 no doubt been increased by the wanton provocation to 

 which they are too often subjected. In another instance, 

 which occurred on the river Yare, at Postwick, an old 

 swan actually sprang from the water into a boat con- 

 taining a man and a boy, and commenced pummelling 

 the latter with its wings, and, though driven out of the 

 boat with a stick, returned again to the charge. 



From the above statements, then, it is very evident 

 that an old male swan, in a temper (and his fierce- 

 ness is not always confined to the breeding season)'^ 

 is a formidable antagonist, either on land or water, but 

 I have never been able to verify the assertion that 

 one has been known to break a man's arm or leg 

 by a blow from its pinioned wing. It has, I know, 

 been so stated by Bewick and others, but no such 

 occurrence is known, even by tradition, amongst our 

 local swanherds, though lesser injuries have been sus- 

 tained by some of them ; and these men when cap- 



* See Thompsou's " Natural History of Ireland," vol. iii., p. 22. 



