WHOOPER. 49 



As a rule, however, these wild swans by no means 

 confine themselves to the sea coast, or even to the broads 

 and streams in close vicinity, but, following the winding 

 course of our rivers, are almost sure to make their 

 appearance during a prolonged frost, in certain favourite 

 localities, even though far inland. Some forty years 

 ago, as the late Mr. Howlett, of Bowthorpe, informed 

 me, that portion of the Yare which lies between Crin- 

 gleford and Colney was so much frequented by wild 

 swans in hard winters as to be locally termed the 

 " Swan river," and he once counted sixteen ; but though 

 in those days the adjoining marshes were more fre- 

 quently flooded, and thus afforded the most tempting 

 feeding grounds, yet to this day, the low meadows 

 about Earlham, Bowthorpe, and Colney, on the above 

 river, and Costessey on the Wensum, all within three 

 or four miles of Norwich, are a constant resort of the 

 whooper. In the winter of 1870-71, a flock of seven 

 took up their quarters in that particular part of the 

 Yare, and though constantly disturbed, and two of their 

 number shot, the survivors were remarked from time 

 to time, at different points of the stream, up to the end 

 of February. Mr. Gurney informs me that many years 

 ago, at Earlham, he flushed five adult wild swans from 

 the river, the weather being severe at the time, with 

 snow on the ground. He at first took them for tame 

 swans, but on his nearer approach they gathered them- 

 selves together, then rose simultaneously, and flapping 

 slowly along the water for some distance, launched them- 

 selves on the wing, presenting a grand sight with the 

 bright sun of a winter's morning shining on their glisten- 

 ing plumage. On another occasion, a gardener, named 

 Bright, in the employ of the late Mr. J. J. Gurney, 

 having observed that some wild swans frequented a 

 certain part of the Earlham river, laid up for them in a 

 cross drain, and as the birds came swimming past, five 

 H 



