EVIDENCE ABOUT SWANS. 75 



no manner of doubt about the dreadful 

 miscliief the swans do- They eats up the 

 spawn of every kind of fish until they 

 have filled their bags, and then on to 

 shore they goes, to sleep off their tuck-out, 

 and then at it again/ What is to be done ! 

 Another spawning season has gone over, and 

 still the devastation remains in fuller force 

 than ever. Cannot some movement be 

 organised that shall have for its object the 

 protection of the next year's fecundation 1 " 



Again, we read in " The Field," of about 

 the same date, the following : — " The old 

 adage of Marlborough that ' we should 

 never under-rate an enemy,' applies to 

 swans as well as men. I, therefore, hasten 

 to modify, in some measure, the statement I 

 have made, that these creatures may be 



