BIRDS 259 



pause. On the 20th of February I spent a whole afternoon 

 with these birds in company with Mr. Thorpe, who was most 

 kindly trying to photograph them for me, though the experiment 

 was defeated by distance. It was in vain that we drove them 

 about the lough, but they never attempted to take wing until a 

 pinioned Mute Swan took fright at our manoeuvres, and flapped 

 heavily across the water in a vain attempt to fly. This was 

 more than the nerves of the Whoopers could stand. Though 

 manifestly unwilling to quit their sanctuary, the wild Swans rose 

 heavily, beating the water with their feet and long wings until 

 they got fairly under weigh, when, wheeling round, they crossed 

 the lough in single file, and passing close to us sped across the 

 ploughed fields in a bee-line to the Solway, looking immense as 

 they loomed past with long outstretched necks. On subsequent 

 inquiry it turned out that these Swans were in the habit of 

 taking occasional flights to the estuary as well as to Thruston- 

 field Lough. I continued to study them until the 17th of 

 March, when Messrs. Heywood Thompson and Hugh Hornby 

 accompanied me to inspect them. We found them swimming in 

 the sedge, considerably less timid than when we originally made 

 their acquaintance, for all four Swans simultaneously reclined 

 their necks in a posture of rest, and so continued until, disliking 

 our scrutiny, they retreated further into the sedge. Desiring to 

 drive them towards my friends, I stood out in the open at the 

 head of the runner and heard the Swans hooping. One fellow 

 flapped his great wings as he sat on the sedge, before re-adjusting 

 them under cover of the flank feathers. Another looked very 

 picturesque as it lazily extended the right wing, lifting it up in 

 order to trim the under- coverts, evidently proud of its white 

 array. This was the last occasion upon which we saw these four 

 Whoopers, although the birds lingered in the district until the 

 end of the month before commencing their journey northward. 



BEWICK'S SWAN. 



Cygnus bewicki, Yarr. 



The first specimen of Bewick's Swan known to have been 

 killed in Lakeland was shot in the neighbourhood of Castle- 



