SWANS IN POND. 79 



have stopped his further poachings — maugre 

 the £5 penalty,^ — Periplectomenes." 



" A friend informed me, last week, that he 

 was walking by a pond in which was a brace 

 of swans. The large carp were spawning 

 and were rolling over the water-weed like 

 pigs, and he assured me that the swans 

 actually lay beside the carp, and eat the 

 spawn as it came from them, and a gentle- 

 man who lives close to the pond told him that 

 he had constantly seen them doing it. In 

 another pond I know of, some years ago, 

 there was a quantity of small fry (young 

 carp and tench) always in the pond. A pair 

 of swans were put on, and now there are a 

 few fish of two and three pounds weight, but 

 nothing smaller, and very few of them ; as 

 the young stock is killed every year by the 



