212 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



near St. Germans, in Cornwall, on June 20tli, 1821, and is still to 

 be seen in the Museum at Xewcastle-on-Tjne, The wife of the man 

 ■who shot it cut oif its wings for dusters, and then threw the body away! 

 Three weeks afterwards it was picked up covered with mud, one of the 

 wings sewn on to it, and made as presentable a specimen as its untoward 

 treatment allowed (Rodd, 'Birds of Cornwall,' p. 143). The time of the 

 year when tliis bird was obtained sufficiently indicates that it was au 

 escape from some ornamental water.] 



THE SWAXS. 



The remark we made respecting the winter distribution 

 of the Wild Geese in this kingdom applies with equal 

 force to the Wild Swans, which are, with the exception of 

 one species, Bewick's Swan, far more numerous on the 

 Eastern coasts than they are in the West. The majority of 

 Wild Swans seen Hying over our estuaries are merely 

 tame Swans, which often wander away from the rivers and 

 ornamental waters where they reside for the greater part 

 of the year in a semi-domesticated state. The fine W^hooper, 

 and the much smaller Swan which has been named after 

 the great line-engraver, like most of the British Wild 

 Geese, find their summer homes in the extreme north of 

 Europe, flying south in the autumn, and passing the 

 winter months in the south-eastern countries of the Con- 

 tinent and in Africa. 



* Mute Swan. Cijgnus olor (Gmelin). 



Introduced. 



This most beautiful, graceful, and elegant bird, to whose history 

 alone in this country a most interesting volume might be given, has 

 generally l)cen supposed to have been introduced to our lakes and rivers 

 by the Eonians, to whom we owe also our English Pheasant. It is 

 justly considered the greatest ornament among our aquatic fowl, and 

 in old days was served at great banquets, and was regarded as a royal 

 dish. In the third volume of that most interesting work, ' The liirds of 

 ^Norfolk,' is a long account of the Xorfolk Swans, in which we read of the 

 " Swan Pits '' at Norwich, which still exist,, in wliich the Cygnets are kept 



