! 33 



#u Have itttgrauts to. iDcvfcgsfjue in 1904. 



By the Rev. Francis C. R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



URING the spring of 1904 the southern part of 



Derbyshire was visited by the largest herd of wild 



swans of which we have any record. Curiously 



enough they did not belong to the larger and more 



commonly occurring species, the Whooper, Cygnus musicus, 



Bechst, but to the smaller Bewick's swan, Cygnus bewicki, 



Yarrell. 



This bird has only been recorded three times previously from 

 Derbyshire. In February, 1845, a herd of eleven was met with 

 on the Trent, and two were shot (Zoologist, 1850, p. 2823). 

 An adult male bird was killed on January 18th, 1864, on the 

 Trent at Newton Solney by Mr. J. A. Smallwood, and is now 

 in the Rolleston Hall collection (incorrectly labelled as having 

 been killed in 1841). See the Zoologist, 1864, p. 8961. The 

 third occurrence was in the winter of 1894-5, when a small 

 herd of six birds visited the reservoir on Ramsley Moor in 

 North Derbyshire, and two were shot by one of the keepers 

 about the first week in January, 1895 (W. Storrs Fox). 



On February 24th, 1904, about 9.30 a.m., a labourer saw two 

 wild swans flying down the Dove valley from Mapleton to 

 Hanging Bridge. They came within easy range, and appeared 

 to settle by the river below Hanging Bridge. They were cer- 

 tainly wild swans from their notes, but whether C. musicus or 

 C. bewicki it is impossible to say. Three days later (February 

 27th) I was standing in my garden about 4.15 p.m., when I 

 heard in the distance the answering calls of an approaching 



