Birds. 3209 



" Fair is the swan, whose majesty prevailing 

 O'er breezeless water, on the garden lake, 



Bears him on while proudly sailing 



He leaves behind a moon-illumin'd wake : 



Behold ! the mantling spirit of reserve 



Fashions his neck into a goodly curre ; 



An arch thrown back between luxuriant wings 



Of whitest garniture, like fir-tree boughs 



To which, on some unruffled morning, clings 



A flaky weight of Winter's purest snows ! '' 

 We believe it is almost, if not quite, an unprecedented circumstance, of this bird pro- 

 ducing so great a number as nine cygnets at one time ; the largest brood we ever re- 

 member to have seen recorded was five, and more generally, from two to four. An 

 intelligent correspondent says that whilst in conversation with a gentleman, who was 

 one day this week admiring the movements of the old ones, with their numerous pro- 

 geny, on the lake, that individual stated that he had never seen more than six, although 

 he had for more than half a century resided where they were constantly kept ; so that 

 both from recorded facts and all the inquiries we havebeen able to make, we believe this 

 will be found to be a very singular incident in natural history. The number of eggs 

 laid was nine, although we believe the gardener confidently asserts, on the authority 

 of a sly peep at the nest, that there were only eight ; be this as it may, there are doubt- 

 less nine cygnets daily sailing on the lake. The day after they took to the water, no 

 less than five of them were seen nestling beneath the wings of the female ; the other 

 four swimming round the old ones, no doubt envying the good fortune of their com- 

 panions, and the snug berth they were enjoying. A few years since so little was known 

 of this bird of Apollo, although domesticated in this country from a very early period, 

 that only two species of swans were recorded ; but the progress made in the science of 

 Natural History, and the great attention paid to Ornithology in particular, has brought 

 to light four varieties of this favourite bird, and we have now not only the wild and 

 domestic swans, but Bewick's and the Polish swans. The swans, with their extraor- 

 dinary progeny, will no doubt contribute to the amusement of the numerous visitors 

 to our delightful Jephson grounds. Mr. Yarrell observes in a letter to the writer: — 

 ■ The brood of swans in the Jephson Gardens is the largest I ever heard of ; seven 

 being considered a large number, the generality of broods being much less than that. 

 We get no such broods in St. James's Park." — Contributed to the 'Leamington Courier 7 

 of May 18, 1851, by John Evans, Esq., of that place. 



The Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) in Norfolk. — In the months of April 

 and May last I collected twenty-nine of these birds, in full summer plumage, all shot 

 in Norfolk. Four of them I preserved, and they are now in the Great Exhibition in 

 Hyde Park, where they are exhibited by Messrs. Robert Clarke and Sons, the furriers, 

 in Class 18, to which they very appropriately belong, as the breast of this bird has 

 become a fashionable and very beautiful substitute for furs, (see Manufactured Arti- 

 cles in the Crystal Palace). The rest of the skins I have had manufactured into ladies' 

 boas and muffs, and may perhaps say they are the first British specimens used for this 

 purpose. The market for grebe is chiefly supplied from southern Europe. — Richard 

 Strangwayes ; 70 and 71, Chiswell Street, July 15, 1851. 



Occurrence of the Caspian Tern near Lausanne. — I heard yesterday from an orni- 

 thological friend of mine, resident at Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva, that a tine 

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