208 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
years past. In May, 1876, one was captured on the Surrey side of 
Hungerford Bridge, and its carcase was sold and exhibited in the New Cut. 
Another was shot about the same time near the Cherry Garden Pier, 
Rotherhithe.—‘ The Times,’ 13th May. 
(Mr. Lionel Tennyson subsequently communicated to ‘ The Times’ the 
fact that on May 13th he had seen a Porpoise in the Thames immediately 
below Barnes Bridge.—Eb. | 
Tur Swanxery at ABBotsBuRY.—The perusal of the Rev. A. C. Smith’s 
graphic description of the Swannery at Abbotsbury, in ‘The Zoologist’ for 
December last, determined me to take advantage of a visit to Weymouth to 
inspect this celebrated colony. Mr. Smith’s description leaves little to be 
added, but I may perhaps be permitted to supplement it by a few scraps of 
information gleaned during my visit and in conversation with the ancient 
swanherd. I was informed by this authority that the total number of 
Swans now under his charge is fully 1300, of which he considered that 
nearly half were engaged in the duties of incubation at the time of my visit 
(25th April), in addition to some few stragglers which nested elsewhere, and 
a few late birds whose nests were still empty, but were not likely long to 
remain so. At the hour of my visit, between four and five in the afternoon, 
the Swans were on their nests, and the day being brilliant, the sight was a 
splendid one. On most of the nests the hen swan was sitting, whilst her 
mate was keeping his proud watch close by; but in a few instances the 
male bird had left his partner and had gone out into the “ fleet” to feed, 
whilst in other, though I think fewer, cases the hen bird was absent whilst 
the male remained in charge. The swanherd told me that of about seven 
hundred cygnets hatched in 1877 very few had been reared except the two 
hundred brought up under nurses in the manner described by Mr. Smith. 
These nurses are hen swans which have hatched a brood of their own, to 
which the cygnets hatched by other mothers are added till the requisite 
number of twenty—which is considered as many as one nurse can attend 
to—is completed; but it is needful that the cygnets given her to adopt 
should be of the same age as her own brood, and that very young, other- 
wise she would destroy them. The young birds brought up by hand are 
principally designed for the table, and I can by no means concur in 
Mr. Smith’s view of a cygnet, well fattened and well dressed, being other 
than a first-rate dish. I was, however, informed that occasionally some of 
the cygnets thus artificially reared are released, when fully grown, for the 
purpose of keeping up the stock of old birds. Those cygnets which are left 
under the care of their parents are, for the most part, lost, as the swanherd 
told me, from their inability to obtain a sufficient sustenance from the weed 
growing in the brackish water of the “fleet.” This, he said, is now less 
