112 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



the earlier examples were identified by Yarrell himself. 

 Whilst such occurrences, therefore, entitle it to special 

 notice in this work, and the question whether it is or is 

 not a good species, still remains sub judice with our 

 best ornithological authorities, I do not hesitate to 

 retain it in the position assigned it by Yarrell, whose 

 views, as to its specific rank, were endorsed by Mac- 

 gillivray from an examination and careful dissection of 

 a pair which were kept in the Zoological Gardens at 

 Edinburgh. 



To the late Mr. William Foster, of Wisbeach, I am 

 indebted for the information that a male specimen of 

 this swan, in the Museum of that town, was killed at 

 North-delph, between Upwell and Downham, in the 

 winter of 1839, certainly the first identified on the 

 Norfolk coast.* From that date I find no further records 

 until 1852, when a notice appeared in the " Naturalist" 

 for that year (p. 170), by Mr. Thomas Southwell, of three 

 birds answering to the description of Yarrell's Polish 

 swan, having been shot out of a flock of thirteen, at 

 Ingoldisthorpe, near Lynn,t in December, 1851. Two 

 of these were purchased for Mr. J. H. Gurney, and 

 were sent up to London to be preserved by Mr. A. D. 

 Bartlett,J in whose keeping they were examined by 

 Yarrell, who, in a letter to Mr. Southwell, now before 

 me, expresses his belief that they were both examples 

 of C. immutabilis. It should be stated, however, that 

 the swans which appeared at Ingoldisthorpe, were sup- 



* No doubt tlie same bird recorded by Yarrell as killed in 

 Cambridgeshire. 



t See also a note by Mr. J. 0. Harper in the same volume of 

 the "Naturalist," p. 132. 



X Singularly enough neither Mr. Bartlett nor Mr. Gurney, 

 though the former remembers the fact of these swans being shown 

 to Yarrell, can give any information as to what subsequently 

 became of them. 



