SHOOTING THE WILD SWAN. 277 



to the most constant fowlers. Nevertheless, when 

 the accident does arrive, tbe swans appear to " come 

 not single spies but in battalions." Colonel Hawker 

 tells us, " On one occasion I knocked down eight at 

 a shot, seven old ones and one brown one, and they 

 averaged nineteen pounds each;" and at Dungeness 

 something of the same extent was done by somebody, 

 whose name is not preserved. When swans are to be 

 met with in these islands, it is under circumstances 

 most unfavourable to them. They seldom or never 

 are found among us, except when overtaken by the 

 rigour of an extremely severe winter, and then their 

 flight is very low; and, when they alight, they are 

 very easily approached. Their size, too, renders them 

 a mark very difficult to miss; so that when the 

 shooter gets within distance, he can hardly avoid 

 killing his bird, though he may not find it quite so 

 easy to " bag" him. When in flight, the swan should 

 be shot at beneath the wing ; when sitting, take him 

 in the head. Always shoot at a hooper from behind, 

 so as to throw your shot under the feathers; they 

 will turn almost anything short of slugs, if fired at on 

 the surface. Colonel Hawker gives a very comical 

 picture of himself and his man going about to circum- 

 vent wild swans on the coast of Hants. Having made 

 out a sort of Lilliputian iceberg, all stuck over with 

 these interesting specimens of ornithology, he floated 

 towards them in his punt, " having previously covered 

 myself and my man with clean white linen, and a 

 white nightcap." The swans must have had strong 



