202 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



herd of swans, which may have arrived during the fury of a gale 

 on the previous day, to find that two or three other punters are bent 

 on the same pursuit. 



The engraving opposite is designed by the author in representation 

 of a scene which occurred, during a hard winter, on the evening 

 succeeding a heavy gale on the eastern coast, when a herd of wild- 

 swans sought refuge in the river Stour ; and were assailed in the 

 evening under the favourable auspices of a calm and moonlight with 

 the charges of two punt-guns of heavy calibre. Neither of the 

 punters was aware of the presence of the other, some large blocks 

 of ice intervening between them; but, both gunners being within 

 range, and ready ; on the discharge of my gun, which killed three 

 of the birds as they sat upon the water, the other punter had 

 ample time for tipping his gun, and by a flying shot, he killed one 

 and winged another. 



Wild-swans soon learn to shun the presence of a punter ; and 

 generally, after being once or twice fired at, they become the wildest 

 and most wary birds upon the waters. 



There is a distinction between the tame-swan and the hooper, or 

 wild-swan, with which most wild-fowlers are familiar; for, though 

 difficult to be distinguished at a distance, when near enough to allow 

 the colour of the head to be seen, there can be no mistake. The skin, 

 or soft substance above the upper mandible, is black in the tame swan, 

 but bright-yellow in the wild one. 



The hooper may also be known from the tame swan, at a distance, 

 by its note ; the wild bird making a sort of hooping noise, which, 

 after hearing it once, the fowler is not likely to forget. They are 

 termed "the peaceful monarchs of the lake," from the contrast they 

 bear with the mute swan ( Cygnus olor), which attacks all other 

 fresh birds that venture within reach of its neck. 



The young hoopers, like other cygnets, are fawn-coloured, and do 

 not attain that beautiful white plumage until two years of age ; till 

 that time they are classed as cygnets. The skin, or soft substance, 

 before alluded to, is not so bright in colour in the cygnets as in 

 swans. The wild cygnet exhibits a pale flesh-colour in the place of the 

 bright yellow ; and the tame swan has, besides, a protuberance just 

 above the upper mandible. 



It is only in the hardest winters that wild-swans visit our coasts 

 and inland waters ; and then there are frequently many tame swans 

 among them, which, having found themselves frozen out of the lakes 



