REMARKS ON BEWICK’S SWAN. 153 
teresting subject, and my former suspicion corrobor- 
ated, by a remarkable circumstance that occurred 
in the neighbourhood in which I formerly resided. 
About half-past eight on the morning of the 10th of 
December, 1829, a flock of twenty-nine Swans, mis- 
taken, by many persons who saw them, for Wild 
Geese, was observed flying over the township of 
Crumpsall, at an elevation of about fifty yards above 
the surface of the earth. They flew in a line, 
taking a northerly direction, and their loud calls (for 
they were very clamorous when on wing) might be 
heard to a considerable distance. I afterwards 
learned that they alighted on an extensive reservoir, 
near Middleton, belonging to Messrs. Burton and 
Sons, calico-printers, where they were shot at; and 
an individual had one of its wings so severely injured 
that it was disabled from accompanying its companions 
in their retreat. 
A short time after I had an opportunity of seeing the 
wounded bird, which resembled the rest of the flock 
with which it had been associated, and found, as I had 
anticipated, that it was precisely similar to the small 
Swan preserved in the Museum at Manchester, which, 
I should state, was purchased in the fish-market in 
that town. 
Twenty-nine of these birds congregated together, 
without a single Whistling Swan among them, is a 
fact so decisive of the distinctness of this species, 
especially when taken in connexion with those ex- 
