THE GREAT WILD SWAN. O 



note of one being met with during that winter. I shall, therefore, 

 introduce, under C. ferns, two notes of wild swans — of which 

 the species is not kno^^^l — having been seen that season. 



On the 26th of January, 1838, and for some days previously, 

 four or five of these birds frequented Conswater, Belfast Bay ; and 

 several shots were fired at them, but without effect. Mr. Gage, 

 jun., of the island of Eathlin, off the northern coast of Antrim, 

 considered that for twenty years, wild swans had not been so 

 numerous there as in the winter of 1837-38. The following note, 

 which appeared in the Northern Whig of Dec. 10, 1842, bears 

 upon that season : — " For a fortnight past Lough Swilly has 

 been visited by several flocks of wild swans. It is four years 

 since these beautiful birds were seen in these waters ; and this 

 year they have appeared more numerously than they are recol- 

 lected to have done on any former occasion." 



In January 1841, Mr. G. C. Hyndraan saw, in Coleraine, a 

 swan of this species, which was killed with two others and twenty- 

 two wigeou, at the same shot from a swivel-gun on Lough 

 Foyle about the beginning of that month. 



In the severe winter of 1849-50, many rare birds were ob- 

 tained in Ireland ; and during that season, as in the one of 1837- 

 38, the only wild swans that came under the notice of my orni- 

 thological friends and myself were the C. ferns. On the 13th of 

 February, 1850, two of these birds were killed somewhere inland 

 (it was said in the county Longford), and sent to Dublin. One 

 of them (reported as being probably in its second year's plumage) 

 was procured for the University Museum, and the other (also 

 immature) by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver. The tail-feathers in 

 each are twenty in number.* f About the same time, a fine 

 adult female of this species was sent for preservation to Belfast, 

 by Henry S. B. Bruce, Esq., of Ballyscullion House, who, on 

 learning that the specimen would be desirable for the collection 

 in the Belfast Museum, liberally presented it. That gentleman 



* Mr. R. Ball. 



t A young wild swan, but of which species could not be learned, \^as shot on a 

 poud near Dingle, county Kerry, this season. 



