54 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



county. " In addition to the common wild swan another 

 has now been ascertained to exist; several specimens 

 were killed in England in 1829, but prior to that I 

 had one, now in my own collection, killed in Norfolk, 

 and preserved by Leadbeater." Subsequent observa- 

 tions proved the so-called Bewick's Swan to be of 

 frequent occurrence on our coast in sharp winters, 

 appearing in similar localities, and under similar con- 

 ditions to the whooper, though, so far as my own 

 experience goes, in less numbers. Messrs. Gurney and 

 Fisher, in 1846, described this species as " almost as 

 common" as the whooper, and as " frequently occur- 

 ring in milder weather," but to whatever cause the 

 discrepancy between their experience and mine may be 

 attributable (possibly to a change in the habits of the 

 birds themselves), I find, on referring to my own notes 

 for the last twenty years, no record of Bewick's swans 

 appearing when whoopers were not also met with, nor 

 yet one single occurrence in otherwise than severe 

 weather, during the months of December, January, 

 February, and March. I quite concur, however, in 

 Mr. Gurney's opinion that the whooper is much more 

 in the habit of coming inland than the Bewick's swan, 

 which would account in a great degree for the larger 

 number of whoopers actually killed.* In the Broad 

 " district " I have known the former shot at Hickling, 

 Horsey, and Ludham, all within a short flight from the 

 coast, but, as exceptions, may be mentioned a pair killed 

 by Mr. F. Howlett, on the 13th of March, 1855, on 

 the river Yare, at Bowthorpe, within three miles of 

 Norwich; and two near Swaffham, in the same year, 



* According to Thompson (vol. iii., pp. 17 and 21) "although 

 Cygnus 'bewicki is considered to visit England less commonly than 

 C. ferus, it is certainly of more frequent occurrence in Ireland." 

 Of the wild swans brought into Dublin Market, he says that four- 

 fifths had been estimated to be of the smaller species. 



