AXATID.E. 213 



and fattened for the table. A fine young Swan, of 15 lbs. weight, must 

 form a grand dish to set before a dinner-jjarty ; we have never ourselves 

 had the luck to partake of one, but we have had the evidence of those who 

 have fensted upon examples of Bewick's Swan, of the excellence of the 

 meat. Considering how prone tame Swans are to wander away from 

 the swanneries, and the extensive breeding-places which exist in the 

 AVest of England, it is not a little remarkable that so few Mute Swans 

 should be observed at large in the winter-time in the sheltered estuaries 

 of our Devonshire coast. We have only once or twice seen Swans, which 

 we considered were only Mute Swans, when we were after wild -fowl on 

 the Barnstaple river, and the instances of their occurrence are not nume- 

 rous even on the southern, and more favoured, shores of the county. 

 Now, the celebrated swannery at Abbotsbury, on the Dorset coast, where 

 there is a stock of several hundred Swans, might well be expected to 

 furnish many stragglers to such close adjoining waters as the mouth of 

 the Exe. Slapton Ley, &c. ; and on the north coast we might imagine 

 that we should be not uuseldom visited by Mute Swans stra}iug across 

 the Channel from a great resort of Swans at Stackpole, Lord CaAvdor's 

 beautiful seat on the south coast of Pembrokeshire. Here the extensive 

 lake is at one end only separated from the sea by a narrow belt of sand-hills ; 

 and the numerous Swans which fre(]uent it in the summer, directly the 

 weed dies down beyond their reach in the autumn, wander off almost to 

 a bird. A few are then shot as " AYild Swans " on the shores of Milford 

 Haven and on the adjoining marshes, but the greater number disappear 

 entirely and must have flown off towards the south. In answer to 

 an inquiry respecting the Swans at Stackpole Court, Lord Cawdor kindly 

 ■wrote as follows, under date November Uth, lb91 : — " The Swans come, 

 and go as they please. I never introduce any fresh blood. A few weeks 

 ago there were above ninety here; to-day there are not ten, because the 

 water has risen and the American weed is out of their reach. They will, 

 I doubt not, return when the water falls. The American weed, alter 

 twenty-five years, has begun to diminish, and has almost died out in some 

 parts of the water. The Swans go up and down Milford Haven, and, I 

 daresay, some of them go across to Devonshire." AVhcn we resided at 

 Bishop's Lydeard, in the west of Somerset, we were near to several large 

 sheets of ornamental water on which tame Swans were kept, and it was 

 the practice of these birds to visit the various Avaters in turn, so that it 

 was quite a common sight to see a small string of Swans passing over- 

 head, and to hear the musical clang of their wings, as the Sandhill Park 

 Swans flew up to the lake at Cothelestone Park, or were making eastwards 

 for the smaller water at Tetton House. 



A considerable number of Swans formerly lived on the estuary of tlio 

 Exe becwcen Countess Weir an,. Topsham, a pair or two nesting yearly 

 in the reed-beds. Up to 185G, we used to see twenty-five feeding to- 

 gether in one spot outside the river-wall at Newport House. They were 

 constantly to be seen and heard Hying up and down the liver, and their 

 musical flight was a source of much gratitical ion to lovers of birds. As they 

 lived in a state of perfect freedom, they frequently flew away to long 



