3916 The Zoologist— March, 1874. 



performance was gone through at the peril of the old birds, or worse still 

 the old fisherman " coming down " upon us. A few years ago nearly all the 

 old swans were caught or killed ; and I have been informed that the reason 

 for so doing was that they lived almost entirely upon the ova and fry of 

 various fishes — salmon and trout to wit. We well know how readily an 

 accusation of this kind receives support, especially from those who have an 

 interest in the matter ; for instance, the little dipper — whether I'ightfully or 

 wrongfully I am not prepared to say, as it does not inhabit this part — is 

 accused of being one of the worst depredators of the trout-streams in the 

 more northern counties ; but as an amateur lover of the feathered tribes 

 I am somewhat sceptical as to the swan's " almost entirely " living at the 

 expense of the piscine race. I have many times seen them feeding upon 

 the water-weed {Anacharis alsinastrum), and have been somewhat amused at 

 their grotesque attitudes, when the long flexible stems of this aquatic plant 

 hung about their neck and seemed much to annoy them, but all of which 

 were eventually disposed of down the swan's capacious gullet. Possibly they 

 sometimes destroy the spawn of various fishes, but, as far as I have been 

 able to observe, they do not destroy the young fry, or at least make a 

 practice of doing so, but make the above-named and other weeds their staple 

 food. I never on any occasion saw a swan feeding which gave such an 

 "ocular demonstration" of their powers of destruction to the angler's 

 favourites as is sometimes observed in the habits of its distant but long- 

 necked relation, the common heron, whose grip of an eel must be anything 

 but comfortable to the captured fish, if we may judge by its writhings and 

 contortions when held in the unmerciful beak of its captor. — G. B. Corbin; 

 liinrpvood, Hants. 



Ostriches pairing. — An editorial note (Zool. S. S. 3531) expresses a wish 

 for some information from the Cape on this point. In consequence, Mr. 

 F. Denny, of Graham's Town, has, at my request, made inquiries amongst 

 the hunters and ostrich farmei-s, and learns from them that in domestication 

 the birds are paired as strictly as possible, but in a wild state the strongest 

 male collects as many wives as he likes, leaving the weaker ones to find 

 mates as they best can. The female, after laying her eggs, turns out of the 

 nest all she cannot cover and keep warm, and at night the male relieves her 

 on the nest, seeking his own food by day. As he could not do this in the 

 natural state, many more eggs must be addled than on the farms, where 

 they can be removed to other nests. The theory that these eggs are 

 designedly left out of the nest by the parent bird in order to provide food 

 for the chicks, is laughed at there ; but how do they procure sustenance, 

 nesting as they do in the desert, long distances away from any vegetation? 

 As the feathers have to be cut off the live birds, they are not worth so 

 much as those plucked from the wild ones after death. — H. F.Bailey; 

 November 13, 1873. 



