90 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



Being desirous of witnessing, for once, this novel 

 scene, I arranged with my friend Mr. Thomas Southwell, 

 to join the " upping " party at Buckenham, in August, 

 1871, and, with John Trett as boatman and general 

 referee upon all points affecting the swanherd's craft, we 

 watched the sport from beginning to end with con- 

 siderable interest. On this occasion, as no birds had 

 located themselves below Buckenham, the small fleet of 

 boats passed up-stream from the " Horse Shoes," and 

 the first " take " occurred in Rockland Dyke. A stern 

 chase is proverbially a long one, and both in the river 

 and the adjoining dykes, when once the old birds became 

 aware of pursuit, it usually took some time before the 

 family group could be surrounded by the boats, or, when 

 thus "headed," driven out on to the bank or "rond." 

 In the water the capture of both swans and cygnets is 

 effected by means of a long pole with a kind of iron 

 " note of interrogation " at one end, after the fashion of 

 a shepherd's crook, and this being passed round the 

 neck of the bird it is, with gentle handling, drawn to 

 the boat side and secured. Accidents, however, may 

 happen by this process, and in unskilled hands the 

 use of the crook has occasionally resulted in a sudden 

 dislocation of the neck. On shore the capture of old 

 and young is comparatively easy. The cygnets, if left 

 quiet for a few minutes, will lie down in a group, 

 and are then taken by hand with little trouble, and 

 should the ownership of the old swans be at all doubtful, 

 or the marks on their beaks require recutting, they are 

 run down, and when boldly seized by the neck, after 

 the swanherd's fashion, are soon ho7-s de combat, though 

 a novice, however powerful, would probably receive 

 some hard knocks in the struggle. I must own I 

 expected to find the old swans much more resentful 

 at the wholesale seizure of their young, and more 

 clamorous and persistent in following the boats than. 



