lf)0 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



continued, the Mute Swan might well be added to 

 the somewhat unreasonable list of birds in the 

 Guernsey Sea-birds Act ; at all events, Swans would 

 be better worth preserving than Plongeons or 

 Cormorants. 



138. HOOPER. Cygnus musieus, Bechstein. 

 French, " Cygne sauvage." The Wild Swan or 

 Hooper* is an occasional visitor to the Channel 

 Islands in hard winters, sometimes probably in 

 considerable numbers, as Mrs. Jago (late Miss 

 Cumber) told me she had had several to stuff in a 

 very hard winter about thirty years ago ; some of 

 these were young birds, as she told me some were 

 not so white as others. Mr. MacCulloch also says 

 that the Hooper visits the Channel Islands in severe 

 winters ; and the capture of one is recorded by a 

 correspondent of the ' Guernsey Mail and Telegraph' 

 for 4th January, 1879, as having been shot in that 

 Island a few days before ; it is said to have been a 

 young bird, grey in colour. The writer of the 

 notice, while distinguishing this bird from the Mute 

 Swan, does not, however, make it so clear whether 

 it was really the present species or Bewick's Swan; 

 from the measurement of the full length (5ft. Sin.) 

 given, however, it would appear that it was the 



* "HucarcT'in Guernsey French (see * Metevier's Dic- 

 tionary,' who also says " Notre Hucard est le Whistling 

 Swan ou Hooper des Anglais." 



