16 "WILD SWANS 



these heavenly creatures. I dare say he set me down 

 as a spiritless ninny. 



Charles St. John had a kindly feeling for wild 

 creatures; but he took a severe toll of them, and 

 describes more than one successful stalk after wild 

 swans. Here again, one is puzzled to know what he 

 did with his quarry, for he says he never ate their flesh. 

 Moreover, the sympathy shown by swans for a wounded 

 comrade might have touched a harder heart than his : 



' I fired right and left at two of the largest as they rose 

 from the loch. .The cartridge told well on one, which fell 

 dead in the water. The other flew off after the rest of the 

 flock, but presently turned back, and, after making two or 

 three graceful sweeps over the body of his companion, fell 

 headlong, perfectly dead, almost upon her body.' ^ 



I should not care to number an episode such as this 

 among my memories of field and flood. It would haunt 

 one uncomfortably during a wakeful night. 



Yarrell records similar behaviour on the part of a 

 bereaved Bewick's swan (Cygnus Bewiclci) : 



' I was informed that when the wild swans were shot near 

 Middleton on December 10, 1839, one of them was so 

 reluctant to abandon the bird which was wounded on that 

 occasion that it continued to fly about the spot for several 

 hours after the rest of the flock had departed, and that 

 during the whole of this period its mournful cry was heard 

 almost incessantly.' ^ 



Anguish in a tomtit or a wagtail may be keen enough 

 when its nest is harried, yet fail to make much impres- 

 sion on the robber; but when it is manifested in so 

 large and lovely a creature as a wild swan he must be a 



' Wild Sports of the Highlandu, ch. xxiv. 



" History of British Birds, iii. 202 (ed. 1856). 



