1 40 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



Morden Park. In 1850 two were shot at Dor- 

 chester, one of which is in the County Museum ; 

 another was shot at Crichel in February 1855 ; and 

 a third at Lodmoor in December 1856. But it is 

 impossible to say whether these had all escaped 

 from confinement in this country, or had actually 

 reached our coast from Africa. 



"VVHOOPER OR WILD SWAN. Cygnus musicus, Beclistein. 



Yarrell, iv. p. 308; Harting, p. 59; Dresser, vi. p. 433; See- 

 bohm, iii. p. 480; Ibis List, p. 120; Anas cygnus, Pul- 

 tene.y's List, p. 19. 



As a winter visitor the Whooper is not very un- 

 common, especially if the weather be very severe 

 after Christmas ; and it sometimes associates with 

 the tame Swans on the Fleet at Abbotsbury, where 

 two were shot on January 14, 1871. Two others 

 were seen there in the winter of 1877, as reported 

 by the Eev. A. C. Smith, Zoologist, 1877, p. 509. 

 Colonel Hawker once killed eight at one shot in 

 Poole harbour ; but this was many years ago. Mr. 

 Pike says he has never seen either a Whooper or a 

 Bewick's Swan in the Poole estuary, although no 

 doubt they do occasionally appear there. A con- 

 siderable number of Swans get killed there in the 

 winter, but those which he has examined have 

 always proved to be the ordinary Mute Swan, Cygnus 

 olor, many of them doubtless stragglers from the 

 Swannery at Abbotsbury. 



