OCT. WILD-SWANS. 7 



beautiful snow-white down, which, when properly 

 dressed by a London furrier, makes boas and other 

 articles of ladies' dress of unrivalled beauty. 



Our omnivorous ancestors appear to have been 

 great eaters of swans. Amongst other dishes at a 

 feast in the reign of Edward IV., mention is made 

 of "four hundred swans." Those said ancestors 

 must have had marvellous capacious stomachs ; for 

 at the same feast there was the like number of 

 herons, besides endless other little delicacies, such 

 as " two thousand pigs ;" the last entrees men- 

 tioned being " twelve porpoises and seals," these 

 probably being reserved to the last as a bonne- 

 bouche. Truly, the tables must have groaned, lite- 

 rally, not figuratively, under the burden of the good 

 things laid upon them. 



The wild-swans, on their first arrival, as I before 

 remarked, are not nearly so wild as subsequent ill- 

 treatment renders them, and I never found much 

 difficulty in procuring a brace, or more, early in the 

 season. Awaiting their arrival at a feeding-place 

 is generally the surest way of getting a shot, or by 

 waylaying them in their passage from one loch to 

 another. On a windy day I have got at them, 

 where the situation has been favourable, by dint of 

 creeping up through bog and ditch. In rough 

 weather they are not so ready to take wing, and 



