HOOPER, 99 



tance, with a common double gun and small shot ; perhaps 

 even farther than other wild fowl, as, when struck in the 

 body, they become helpless from their weight, and their 

 heads are less likely to escape between the shot than those of 

 smaller fowl. No birds vary more in weight than Hoopers. 

 In the last winter, 1838, I killed them from thirteen to 

 twenty-one pounds. On one occasion I knocked down eight 

 at a shot, seven old ones and a brown one, and they averaged 

 nineteen pounds each. The old gander was only winged ; 

 and when he found himself overtaken by my man, Read, he 

 turned round and made a regular charge at him." 



These birds visit Holland, France, Provence, and Italy ; 

 and Mr. Bennett says they sometimes go as far south as 

 Egypt and Barbary. 



Linnaeus saw wild swans several times during his tour in 

 Lapland, and mentions that at the residence of the governor 

 of the province at Calix, he saw three, which having been 

 taken when young, were as tame as domestic geese. 



Mr. Dann, in his note to me of this bird, says : — " The 

 Wild Swan appears in Lapland with the first breaking up of 

 the ice, and is the earliest of all the Anatidse in its return 

 north. They frequent the most secluded and uninhabited 

 swamps and lakes in the wooded districts, and are found only 

 in scattered pairs south of Juckasiervi ; thence in a north- 

 eastern direction they are reported to be very numerous, but 

 I did not fall in with any during my stay in Lapland." 



Bechstein says that in Russia the Hooper is more fre- 

 quently domesticated than the Mute Swan. A pinioned 

 female, in the possession of Montagu, laid an egg. Several 

 years ago I had an opportunity of seeing ten or twelve 

 Hoopers in a stable in London. These fine birds had been 

 procured by Mr. Castang, the well known dealer in birds for 

 the late Earl of Egremont, and the swans were shortly after- 

 wards sent to Petworth, where, it was said, they afterwards 



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