able distance, and one of them was slaughtered by some 

 brutal scoundrel with peculiar atrocity ; the other came 

 home and wandered every morning for several months 

 across our lawn from the river to the wire-fence that 

 encloses the pond upon which he and his mate had been 

 previously kept, spent the day in vain endeavours to get 

 at a solitary Bewick's Swan on the pond, and returned 

 regularly to the river at night. At last, moved by com- 

 passion, we let him in to join the bird that I have just 

 named, but the only result was a furious encounter. 

 The Whooper, on his journeys across the lawn, solaced 

 himself with resonant whooping cries, to which the 

 Bewick Swan occasionally responded with a very distinct 

 sonorous cry that I can only attempt to represent by 

 the word " boong " rapidly repeated. 



