The Polish Swan. 99 



Great numbers of Swans were formerly kept on Lincolnshire rivers, and on 

 the famous Swan pool, at Lincoln. St. Helen's Swan pool, at Norwich, is a noted 

 feeding place for the cygnets, from eighty to one hundred being fed there at once. 

 The reader will find a most exhaustive description of the whole process of feeding, 

 etc., in Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," vol. iii, p. 96. 



The great Swannery of the Bar! of Ilchester, at Abbotsbury, near Weymouth, 

 is the largest in the kingdom, and existed in the time of Elizabeth. When Mr. 

 J. H. Gumey visited the place in April, 1878, the Swan-herd informed him that 

 the total number then under his charge was one thousand three hundred, half of 

 which were engaged in the duties of incubation. In 1877, about seven hundred 

 cygnets were hatched. In 1888, there were six to seven hundred Swans on the 

 water, most of the young cygnets being hatched by the first week in June. 



Swans are accused of destroying the spawn of fish, and I think not without 



reason, although this may be caused by their pulling up the weeds on which 



' spawn is attached. They are very fond of feeding upon the troublesome American 



weed Anacharis alsinastrum ; and will eat frogs and water insects, which themselves 



are destructive to spawn. 



Family— ANA TIDyE. 



Polish Swan. 



Cygnus immutabilis, Yarr. 



THK Polish Swan was first distinguished and described by Mr. Yarrell, as far 

 back as 1838, under the name of Cygnus immutabilis — The Changeless Swan. 

 The supposed specific distinctions which separated it from its nearest ally C olor, 

 are very clearly pointed out by Mr. Yarrell. The cygnets produced by a pair of 

 these birds are from the first pure white, or with very light bufif-coloured down. 



