214 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



occurrence. I have met with it both on Thoresby 

 and Rufford Lakes, though it cannot be looked for 

 regularly, as we have none of the marshes in which it 

 delights, and where it can be secure from interruption, 

 for it is excessively shy and wary, and detects a sports- 

 man at a great distance. In winter I have often seen 

 large flocks of this species passing overhead from the 

 northward in the well-known form of the letter <j ; but 

 it is only in twos and threes that they pay their brief 

 visits to us. 



Of the Bean Goose (A. ferus) I have known a few 

 individuals obtained, but they do not visit us in any 

 numbers as in the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire, 

 and their well-known wariness makes it very difficult to 

 approach them unobserved. 



That fine winter visitor the wild swan or Hooper 

 (Cygnus ferus) appears in small parties in hard seasons, 

 generally frequenting the Trent, where, I am sorry to 

 say, it soon falls a victim ; for no sooner is a flock seen 

 than numberless guns are put in requisition. I have 

 known several instances of their occurrence on the river 

 near Nottingham ; on one occasion the flock consisted 

 of seven, and all of them were shot. Two hoopers 

 visited Thoresby Lake in December, 1863. They did 

 not seem to fraternize with the next species, and were 

 both shot by the keepers. 



The artificial lakes I have mentioned are all tenanted 

 by the Mute Swan (G. olor). They are most numerous 

 on the sheet of water at Thoresby, where I have some- 

 times counted more than thirty at a time. Their num- 

 bers vary a little from time to time, small parties of two 

 and three arriving from Clumber or Wei beck, and their 

 visits being returned in due course. I once saw the 



