452 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



losing the dark colour on their heads. About the breakwater 

 were a good many Terns, and a few Razorbills ; these were still 

 in full summer plumage. On the 5th of August we went to 

 Abbotsbury to see the swannery, which appeared to have fallen off 

 very much in regard to the number of swans. There were only 

 thirty young birds this year, and still fewer, I was informed, the 

 year before ; very different from 1877, when I was there in May 

 and saw more than 330 nests with most of the hen birds sitting, 

 and the old males standing by their sides; and in 1878, on May 

 25th, there were nearly as many, and one brood out. Now Wey- 

 mouth seems quite to cut out Abbotsbury, for there were quite 

 300 Swans either about the bay or on the backwater, all looking 

 well and in fine condition ; while those at Abbotsbury did not 

 look particularly healthy, and appeared low in condition ; and the 

 boy who showed us round said they had to be fed three times a 

 day with Indian corn ; the few young ones were being fed with 

 short cut grass from the paths which had been mown and the 

 grass thrown to them, for which they appeared very eager. I do 

 not know the reason for this decrease in the number of swans 

 bred every year, but should be inclined to attribute it to the 

 fouling of the ground ; for the space actually occupied as a 

 breeding-ground is small, and has been used for the purpose 

 without change, I imagine, for years. It certainly smelt strongly, 

 and no ordinary poultry or tame ducks would stand being l'eared 

 year after year on such foul ground. A few no doubt stray away 

 up and down the coast and over to the Channel Islands, and get 

 shot ; but so few that it can make no appreciable difference in 

 the numbers ; nor is it cei'tain that every Mute Swan shot either 

 along the coast or in the Channel Islands is a straggler from 

 Abbotsbury ; for there are as many or more swans at Weymouth 

 and a good many on the Exe, some of which may wander along 

 the coast or across to the Channel Islands. 



It does not seem to be known at what precise date the 

 Abbotsbury swannery was first established, and I should be glad 

 if any reader of ' The Zoologist' can furnish information on this 

 point. Hutchins, in his ' History of Dorset,' says a good deal 

 about the swannery, but he does not trace it back much further 

 than the time of Henry VIII. It seems from his account, that " in 

 the thirty-fifth year of Elizabeth, the water, soil, and the fishery 

 called the East Flete, and the flight of Wild Swans called the 



