170 FISH CULTURE. 



wisli evey swan was, like his sable brother, a " rara 

 avis in terris," or rather aguis. One had better throw 

 open his pond or river to all the poachers in the dis- 

 trict than indulge in a taste for swans. If any one 

 doubts this, let him take a row up the Thames from 

 Weybridge to Chertsey, or on to Laleham, during the 

 latter end of the month of April or early in May, and 

 take particular and especial notice of what the swans 

 are doing. If he has still any doubt, and likes to 

 kill one or two and cut them open, he will solve his 

 doubts and do a service at the same time : he may be 

 fined for it, but he will certainly suffer for a good 

 action and in a good cause. A swan can and will 

 devour a gallon of fish-spawn every day while the 

 spawn remains unhatched, if he can get it, and it is 

 easily found. I leave the reader to calculate what 

 the few hundreds (I might almost say thousands) on 

 the Thames devour in the course of two or three 

 months. Their greediness and voracity for fish-spawn 

 must be witnessed to be believed. If this were not 

 so, the Thames ought to swarm to excess with fish, 

 whereas it is but poorly supplied.^ 



1 Here is a little calculation. Suppose each swan only to take 

 a quart of spawn per diem, which is a very low average indeed ; 

 suppose each quart to contain 50,000 eggs (not a tithe of what it 

 does contain) — I am not speaking of salmon or trout here, their ova 



