HOOPER OR WHISTLING SWAN. 355 



must have greatly perplexed the original proprietor on revisiting 

 it in the following spring when trying to identify its own property. 

 Mr Harvie Brown informs me that a female Canada Goose, now 

 in his collection, was shot out of a flock of four at Carron dams, 

 near Falkirk, on 8th June, 1869. 



THE HOOPER OR WHISTLING SWAN. 



CYGNUS FERUS. 



Eala. 



THE Common Wild Swan, as this species is called, generally 

 arrives in the Outer Hebrides in November, although in some 

 years earlier, especially during the prevalence of northerly winds. 

 Four or five birds, and occasionally a dozen or so, come together 

 in a flock ; they fly low, and are often shot as they pass overhead, 

 coming in from the sea. These flocks appear to be families, 

 judging from their arrival in groups of young and old. They 

 always fly in a line, calling to one another frequently with loud 

 trumpeting cries. On Loch Bee, in South Uist, which is never 

 known to be frozen over, they are especially numerous in severe 

 weather, as many as four hundred having been seen there in one 

 flock. This lake is quite shallow at the north-western extremity, 

 and affords the birds ample feeding ground, so that it becomes a 

 general rendezvous for many weeks. They are not much 

 molested as, unless the birds are very near the shore when fired 

 at, it is almost impossible to capture any that may be wounded, 

 the lake being several miles in circumference, and deep and cold 

 enough to deter any ordinary human retriever, even after getting 

 fairly under weigh. Ten minutes experience in Loch Bee would 

 convince the bravest man or dog that a wounded swan there might 

 as well be in the Minch. About the middle of April the noble 

 congregation breaks up into detachments, as the bernicle geese 

 are known to do, and after much sounding of bugles summoning 

 the feathered hosts into the air, they soon get into their line of 

 flight, and are afterwards seen at a great height steering for their 

 northern home. 



On the other numerous lakes of the Long island, similar obser- 

 vations on winter flocks of swans may be made. In Lewis they 



