372 SHOOTING WILD-SWANS. 



" haul his wind," as a sailor calls it, and come across, 

 a fair shot for your large gun. 



Hundreds of common swans are mistaken for 

 hoopers. In hard weather they are driven from 

 gentlemen's seats, and still more so from the large 

 swanneries ; such, for instance, as that at Abbots- 

 bury, in Dorsetshire. They then frequently repair 

 to the shore; and by congregating in flocks, and 

 there getting driven about and shot at, become quite 

 as wild as the real hoopers, from which they are dif- 

 ficult to distinguish, unless you hear them hoop* 

 But when near enough to inspect' the head you can 

 be no longer in doubt, as the naked skin above the 

 bill in the tame swan is black, and in the wild swan 

 bright yellow. Under two years of age the hoopers, 

 like other cygnets, are not white, but more or less of 

 a dull fawn colour, and then the yellow is much less 

 brilliant ; though still plain enough to distinguish 

 them from swans of the tame species. Moreover, 

 the tame swan has a protuberance just above the 

 bill, where the forehead of the wild swan rises 

 gradually in profile, though it is rather hollow when 

 inspected from the centre. [I write this with a stuffed 

 specimen of the tame swan, and each specimen of the 

 hooper now before me.] 



An octavo volume might be rapidly filled, without 

 reference to any other work, on the mere subject of 

 shooting all the foregoing birds ; but, through con- 

 sideration for my reader's patience, I shall now con- 

 clude, sincerely hoping that I have given all the real 



