THE HOOPER SWAN. 487 



their long voyage, and others feeding on the grass and 

 weeds at the bottom of the loch, which in some parts was 

 shallow enough to allow of their pulling up the plants 

 which they fed on as they swam about, while numbers 

 of wild Ducks of different kinds, particularly Wigeons, 

 swarmed round them, and often snatched the pieces of 

 grass from the Swans as soon as they had brought them 

 to the surface, to the great annoyance of the noble birds, 

 who endeavoured in vain to drive away these most active 

 little depredators, who seemed determined to profit by their 

 labours. "I observed," he says, "that frequently all their 

 heads were under the water at once, excepting one but 

 invariably one had kept his head and neck perfectly erect, 

 and carefully watched on every side to prevent their being 

 taken by surprise ; when he wanted to feed, he touched 

 any passer-by, who immediately relieved him in his guard, 

 and he in his turn called on some other Swan to take his 

 place as sentinel." 



Swans, like wild Geese, are in the habit of returning 

 every year to the same district of country, and in passing 

 to and from their feeding-ground keep closely to the same 

 line of flight, a peculiarity of which fowlers take advantage 

 by lying in ambuscade somewhere beneath their aerial 

 road. 



When disturbed on the water they generally huddle to- 

 gether and utter a low cry of alarm before they take flight. 

 Owing to their great weight, they have not the power of 

 rising suddenly into the air, but flap along the water, 

 beating the surface with their great wings, some twenty 

 or thirty yards. The flapping noise made while this pro- 

 cess is going on, may be heard at a great distance. 



In severe winters, flocks of Hoopers, Whistling Swans, 

 or Elks, as they are variously called, come farther south, 

 and may be observed from time to time on different parts 

 of the coast. 



