252 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



foot of Deepthwaite [in Kendal Ward] wh. sat and bread 

 there.' 1 But I cannot find any subsequent allusion to the 

 presence of this swan prior to Clarke's remark in 1787, that 

 Miles Sandy kept a few swans on Esthwaite, ' which added 

 greatly to the beauty of that lake.' During the first half of 

 our century an advance was witnessed in the domestication of 

 these birds. Our local newspapers of the ' forties ' and the 

 ' fifties ' contain many protests against the then prevailing 

 custom among sportsmen to shoot the Mute Swans which had 

 strayed from private ponds. Probably the swan which was 

 shot on Bassenthwaite, * converted into soup, and distributed to 

 the poor of Keswick/ 2 was a stray Mute Swan. 



POLISH SWAN. 



Gygnus immutabilis, Yarrell. 



Having already explained (vide Prolegomena) the grounds upon 

 which I have felt it my duty to risk unfavourable criticism by 

 admitting this Swan to specific rank, it only remains that I 

 should supply the needful particulars of the four Polish Swans 

 which have been taken in Lakeland. Early in January 1892 

 information reached me that a small herd of wild swans had 

 appeared on the English Sohvay, in the neighbourhood of Car- 

 dunock. Their presence was soon ascertained by the local punt- 

 gunners, who however found them so wild that it was almost 

 impossible to work up to them. On the 14th of Januar}', 

 K. Law secured one of the three swans then frequenting the 

 Waver. He forwarded it to me the same day. It proved to be 

 a typical Polish Swan, with a feathered, suppressed frontal 

 tubercle, and the narrow, lean, snake-like head, characteristic of 

 the true wild-bred Cygnus immutabilis. Mr. Nicol shot one of 

 the two survivors on the following day. Story shot the third 

 bird on the Wampool on January 1 6th, after a severe chase, for 

 at first it was only crippled. A fourth specimen was shot in 

 the Sohvay off Burgh Marsh on the 1 8th of January. The birds, 

 taken in the chronological order just mentioned, weighed (a 

 female) 17 lbs. 2 oz. ; (a male) 18 lbs. ; (a male) 20 lbs.; 



1 Machel ms. vol. ii. p. 173. 2 Carlisle Patriot, Jan. 24, 1852. 



