21G THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



the Dart is in tlie Torquay Museum. A pair were seen XovemLer 14th, 

 1870, on the Kingshridge estuary, and the female, weighing 11^ lbs., was 

 Bhot (H. X., Zool. l^TO, p. 5l5U). Another was shot and brought to 

 Mr. II. P. Nicholls a tew days afterwards, but was not preserved. 



Although only to be considered a rare visitor in the winter-time, and 

 appearing at uncertain intervals, Bewick's Swan is, nevertheless, the 

 most common of the species of Wild Swan in the West Country. In 

 Ireland Mr. Thompson said it was more often seen than the AVhooper ; 

 we know of many instances of its occurrence in Pembrokeshire, and our 

 own specimen comes from that county. In Cornwall, according to 

 Mr. llodd's brief note, it would .seem to have been occasionally confounded 

 with the much larger and rarer Whooper, and Mr. Piodd's collection had 

 examples which had been procured in his county ; while in Somerset it 

 has several times been met with in considerable numbers. In the winter 

 of 1&7S there was a large visitation of these beautiful Swans to the West 

 Somerset Moors. We quote our own notes communicated to the 'Zoologist' 

 at the time C Zoologist,' 1S70, p. 173): — " Our friend, the Kev. P. C. L. 

 lirowne, Vicar of North Curry, who was greatly interested by the visit of 

 a Hock of Bewick's Swans to the moors in his parish, has given us the 

 following particulars : — The flock numbered about sixty birds, and fre- 

 quented the neighbourhood of Xorth Cuny for a month. The birds were 

 remarkably wary, and although many gunners were on the watch for 

 them, only one succeeded in obtaining a shot. The Vicar himself spent 

 a moonlight night on a frozen rhine, lying up for the Swans, but although 

 they often shifted their ground, they did not come within reach of his 

 duck-gun. A labourer, Avith his single-barrelled gun, had greater luck, 

 coming on them unexpectedly, and succeeded in knocking over four ; of 

 these two were jiicked up, while the other two, being but slightly 

 wounded, managed to escape. One of the two obtained was sold to 

 Mr. Poster, of North Curry ; the other the Vicar was anxious to secure, 

 but arrived at the man's cottage just as he and his family were sitting 

 down to a dinner off roast Swan. A slice from the breast, although both 

 juicy and tender, was but a poor equivalent for the loss of what would 

 have been prized as an extremely interesting local specimen. During the 

 day the Swans flew about from one ' washet ' to another, as the open 

 places in the ice ou the ' grounds ' on the moor are termed locally. The 

 birds passed overhead in a wedge-formation, uttering musical cries, and 

 as they alighted hovered for an instant with uplifted wings above the 

 ground, when they ' looked like a descending flight of angels.' " A 

 smaller flock, numbering sixteen appeared on the southern edge of the 

 moor in the neiglibourhood of Glastonbury. Of these, four were pro- 

 cured, as stated by Mr. Porch in the ' Field,' February 22nd, 1871*. Two 

 of these were presented by that gentleman to the Museum at Taunton 

 Castle, and were a valuable addition to the collection of county birds. 

 One was a remarkaldy line adult ; the other, almost an adult, had a little 

 rust colour on the forehead and breast *. Mr. Bidgood, the Curator of the 



* This tinge of rusty yellow, which is often noticed on the front of tlie head cf 

 Swans, is supposed by some ornithologists to be merely the stain occasioned by the 



