22 ANATIDJi. 



Since childhood, this bird has been well known to lue from being- 

 kept on our own and on friends' ponds ; but I do not feel satisfied that 

 anything I can say on the subject is worth relating. The period of 

 the male becoming bold varies of course with the season. A relative 

 notes him as being so at Wolf-hill, at the end of January in 1832, and 

 not until the beginning of March the following year, when the entry 

 appears — " Swan getting bold ; turned on me in the yard.'' The bold- 

 ness is sometimes continued late in the season, though quite uncalled 

 for in defence either of mate or progeny. At a very spacious sheet of 

 water in Belvoir Park, near Belfast, whither, on the 9th October, I 

 once went to ascertain what species of the smaller bivalve shells it pro- 

 duced, I was at that late period as savagely attacked by one of these 

 birds as I could have been in the breeding season. On endeavouring, 

 at various parts of the lake, to ply the tiny net, my enemy always 

 boldly met me, though occasionally having to use his wings along the 

 surface of the water. Eventually, finding that he was determined to 

 be " sole monarch of all he surveyed," I was obliged to forego my 

 intended pursuit, rather than incur any risk of injuring the bird in 

 self-defence. 



The boldest swan I ever saw was one kept at Wolf-hill for 

 many years. When any person appeared within 100 or 150 yards 

 of his pond in the breeding season, he hurried, half flying, to assail 

 him, and as boldly attacked horses as men, rushing up and striking 

 them about the hind legs, to the astonishment of their riders ; fortu- 

 nately for the swan, they always dashed forward when struck, instead, 

 as we might expect, of trying the effect of their heels against the 

 assailant.* 



On the subject of nidification, &c., it was noted by a relative at the 

 same place, in 1833 — " Our tame swans had their nest this spring as usual 

 beneath the hovel at the side of the dam : the male bird carried the 



* The Cjjgnus Betvickli, as ah'eady mentioned in reference to the individuals which 

 have come under my owTi notice, is gentle at all periods of the year. I have had 

 no opportunity of observing, for any length of time, the habits of the great wild 

 s\^an {C. ferns). But one of these birds, which has been kept without the company 

 either of its own or other species, at Seaview, near Belfast, for the last few years, 

 was remarked to call for the lirst time in the season, on the 2Gth of February, 1850, 

 which it coutiuucd to do for some days afterwards, when I was informed of the 

 circumstauce. It likewise became so far bold as to advance to the banks of the pond 

 and leave the water, to march conhdently up to a person walking there. This bird 

 had before, open-billed, pursued chOdren who ventured on the banks of the pond 

 (which is largej, so that they had to be forbidden to go there. 



