356 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



into adult male plumage, but that their breasts were quite white. When 

 I was in town, in the latter part of April, I saw one of these birds, which was 

 in beautifully clear bright adult plumage, and its breast had then acquired 

 some colour, but was less pink than that of wild birds. The keeper told 

 me that the other bird was exactly similar. The one I saw, which was in 

 the small wall-cage at one end of the western aviary, sang a quiet, rather 

 low-toned chant, with many sweet notes interspersed. It might have caught 

 some of these notes from its near neighbours. The other bird had not then 

 begun to sing. Meyer's bird remains a puzzle to me. — 0. V. Aplin. 



Strength of Wing in the Swan.— Every one is familiar with the 

 popular notion that the strength of a Swan is so great that it is able to break 

 a man's leg with a blow of its wing. This T cannot believe, nor did I until 

 lately believe that a human arm might be fractured in this way. Under 

 exceptional circumstauces, however, it seems that this might happen, and 

 a case of the kind has been actually reported to have occurred. A writer 

 in the excellent American paper ' Forest and Stream' (May 20th last) states 

 that the first surgical case that he had in the State of Arkansas was setting 

 an arm that had been fractured by a blow from a Swan's wing. The 

 accident occurred on Swan Lake, near Shawnee village plantation, in 

 Mississippi county, in the winter of 1870. The patient, a hunter for the 

 Memphis market, was " fire-hunting" at night, and a band of Swans flew 

 at the light. The man was in a little pirogue, and instinctively threw his 

 arms up to protect his head. The left arm was struck by the wing of 

 one of the birds, and the man sustained a compound fracture of the fore- 

 arm, both bones being broken. I never heard of a similar case, and 

 should be curious to know whether such an accident has ever come to 

 the knowledge of any reader of these lines. I have had personal 

 experience of the strength of wing in a Wild Swan (Cygnus ferus), on 

 going to retrieve one which I had shot at from a gunning punt and 

 which fell winged on a gravelly island. I was severely buffetted with 

 the uninjured wing, but no bones were broken except that of the Swan 

 which the shot had shattered. This no doubt handicapped the bird 

 considerably and prevented it from fully exerting itself. The details of 

 this incident are given in my ' Essays on Sport and Natural History ' 

 (1883), pp. 440-449.— J. E. Harting. 



Catching Wild Swans.— Dr. Jon Stefanoson, in a communication to 

 ■ The Field' of Nov. 2nd, 1895 (p. 745), has described a curious mode of 

 capturing Swans which he alleges has been practised for centuries in the 

 north-east of Iceland. In the shortening days of autumn, when their moult 

 is completed, the Swans leave the interior of that island for the coast in 

 flocks of about a score, and at this time the dwellers on the coast assemble 

 with their dogs and lie in wait for the exodus. As the flocks approach the 

 men set up all manner of unearthly sounds, " shouting at the top of their 



