222 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



presently fell into their usual single rank, and went undulating 

 off towards the sea, where I heard them for a long time 

 trumpeting and calling. 



Handsome as he is, the wild swan is certainly not so grace- 

 ful on the water as a tame one. He has not the same proud 

 and elegant arch of the neck, nor does he put up his wings 

 while swimming, like two snow-white sails. On the land a 

 wild swan when winged makes such good way, that if he gets 

 much start it requires good running to overtake him. 



Their feathers are so strong and they have so much down 

 beneath the breast-feathers,*that when coming towards you over 

 your head, no shot makes the least impression unless you aim 

 at their head and neck. 



If such constant warfare was not declared against these (now 

 only occasional) visitors to this country, as well as against 

 many others, our lakes and woods would have many more 

 permanent winter and summer occupants than they have. I 

 have no doubt that many birds which now only pass a few 

 months here would domicile themselves entirely if left in peace ; 

 and swans, instead of returning to the deserts and swamps of 

 Russia, Siberia, or Norway, would occasionally at least remain 

 here to breed, and by degrees become perfectly domiciled during 

 the whole year in some of the large marshes and lakes of 

 Scotland or Ireland, where proper food and feeding-places could 

 always be found by them. At present they visit us generally 

 about the middle of October. On their first arrival in Findhorn 

 Bay they are sometimes in immense flocks. Last year I saw 

 a flock of between two and three hundred resting on the sands. 

 After remaining quiet till towards evening, they broke off" into 

 different smaller companies, of from twenty to three or four 

 birds in each, and dispersed in different directions, all of them, 

 however, inclining southwards. 



They probably return year after year to the same district .of 

 country, taking with them either their own broods of the season 

 or any others that are inclined to join them. In the large flock 

 that I mentioned having seen last year, I could not distinguish 

 a single young bird. The cygnets of the wild swan, like those 

 of the tame one, are during the first season of a greyish-white, 

 and are easily distinguished amongst the dazzling white plumage 

 of the old birds. When swans frequent any loch near the sea 



