SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



observing the movements of these birds, both 

 in flight and when resting on the sands of the 

 Solway Firth. When they arrive upon the 

 estuary they almost invariably alight on the 

 sand and then walk into the water to wash 

 and dress their spotless white plumage. They 

 appear to visit the estuaries in the daytime 

 almost exclusively. Although I have tramped 

 about the shores of the Solway at all hours of 

 the night for upwards of thirty years, it has 

 only been my privilege to hear the notes of 

 wild swans in the night-time on three dif- 

 ferent occasions. The first instance occurred 

 at an unusual season of the year for swans to 

 visit tidal waters, namely, in the month of 

 July. Three of us were crossing the sand on 

 our way to Anthorn to fish, when we were 

 startled by hearing an unusual sound about a 

 quarter of a mile off, in the direction of a 

 scaur well known to us. The hour was 

 between one and two on a Monday morning. 

 None of us could make out what the strange 

 sound could be. I have never heard it since. 

 It resembled the short loud hiss of a steam 

 engine when blowing off steam, and we con- 

 cluded (while making our way in the direc- 

 tion from which it came) that it must be a 

 stranded whale, and were already discussing 

 the best method of securing and disposing of 

 the animal, when to our disappointment we 

 saw a large white swan rise off the scaur. To 

 what species it belonged I cannot say. Its 

 voice in the night sounded anything but 

 canny, and had we not distinctly seen the 

 bird we should have felt persuaded that some 

 strange animal must be in the neighbourhood. 

 Another night, about the middle of February, 

 1901, having occasion to take observations of 

 the weather before retiring to rest, I was 

 delighted to hear in the darkness the well 

 known musical notes of the Bewick's swan 

 uttered by birds flying over the houses 

 towards the sea. At daybreak on the follow- 

 ing morning, while drifting with the flood- 

 tide, I got within thirty yards of five Bewick's 

 swans, which I conjectured must have been 

 the birds which I had heard in the darkness 

 the previous night. I did not attempt to 

 shoot them, as I expected to find either geese 

 or wild duck in the vicinity. Of all the 

 species of web-footed birds that have fallen to 

 my gun, swans are the least difficult to 

 approach in a punt unless you come across 

 one or two odd birds that have already been 

 shot at, in which case they seem to under- 

 stand the nature of the suspicious-looking 

 object which is gradually drifting towards 

 them, and make off to some safer quarter. 

 During thirty years' punt-gunning and shore- 

 shooting I have only killed eight wild swans; 



but then I never searched specially for them, 

 and usually spared them when found. But 

 on the first day of March, 1901, being my 

 last shot on the last day of the open season, I 

 killed five Bewick's swans, three old birds and 

 two cygnets, out of a herd of thirty, which is 

 the largest I have met with. It would have 

 been easy to have killed double the number, 

 had I felt anxious to do so. The morning 

 was wild and showery, with a keen east wind 

 blowing. The position in which I found the 

 birds was all that could be wished for. All 

 seafowl when exposed in the water set head 

 to wind. Had not the water been shallow 

 and the punt looking right in the wind's 

 eye, I could not have kept her from filling 

 with water. The swans were packed close 

 together, with five cygnets in the rear. They 

 allowed me to approach as near as was desir- 

 able, and in the hope of securing a pinioned 

 bird, I allowed them to open out, wishing to 

 take them as they rose upon the wing. The 

 report of my gun so alarmed them that at 

 first sight it seemed as if I had killed half the 

 flock. They floundered and splashed on the 

 water in their haste to escape, calling loudly 

 to one another. I never was anxious to shoot 

 swans, and after what I saw of these, I am 

 less desirous of doing so than I was previously. 

 After their first alarm had abated they soon 

 discovered that some of their companions 

 were missing, and returned to the spot, call- 

 ing piteously to their dead mates to rejoin 

 them, and evidently wondering why they 

 failed to do so. These birds do not as a rule 

 stay long upon the Solway, the food procur- 

 able upon the marshes being less palatable 

 than the roots and fibres of aquatic plants 

 obtained in loughs inland. Bewick's swans 

 were more numerous upon the Solway Firth 

 during the winter of 18923 than at any 

 other time within my recollection. On 

 3 December, 1892, I saw two flocks of 

 Bewick's swans on the wing at one and the 

 same time ; the first herd consisted of twenty- 

 four birds, the other of twelve. On 2 January, 

 1893, 1 observed five birds of the same species. 

 On 2 February I saw two birds. On 1 1 March 

 that year I observed eleven Bewick's swans ; 

 they were flying due east. 



Whooper Swan. This bird visits the Sol- 

 way Firth less frequently than its smaller 

 relative. I have never shot a whooper, but 

 I observed five birds of this species on 

 22 January, 1892. No doubt I may have 

 met with others when in pursuit of duck, but 

 these were the only whoopers that I carefully 

 identified. 



Polish Swan. Whether this bird deserves 

 to rank as a separate species or only as a 



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