262 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



but with less frequency than the Mute Swans; they swam 

 lower in the water, their sterns being nearly in a plane with the 

 water, not arching upwards, but carried a few inches only above 

 the water. On their first arrival the Bewick's Swans were shy 

 and apprehensive of danger, but finding that they were entirely 

 unmolested, they became less retiring, though through the day 

 they were almost always to be seen in the centre of the water. 

 One morning Mr. Halton and I started early, and arrived at the 

 lough long before sunrise, hoping to see the wild Swans flighting 

 high in the air when the day broke. Happening to strike a 

 match to light my pipe, as we crouched behind a hedge above 

 the water, I alarmed the ever- vigilant Coots, and they sang out 

 1 danger ' so lustily as to disturb all the other birds. The wild 

 Swans proved to have been sleeping at the edge of the lough, 

 but when thus awakened they sheered off from the bank, and 

 paddled out into the centre of the lough. They seemed to obtain 

 all their food in the lough, and fed during the day in a bed of 

 sedge. On their first arrival they were cautious, and one bird 

 would act as sentinel while its companion leant forward to 

 browse with neck submerged upon the water- weeds. But when 

 their first suspicions had been lulled to rest they often fed 

 together, submerging their heads simultaneously for from eight 

 to seventeen seconds. In deep water they solved the difficulty 

 of reaching the bottom by feeding stern uppermost, thus im- 

 mersing the fore part of the body as well as the head and neck. 

 They manifested no intolerance of smaller birds. Once when 

 the Swans were swimming side by side, a Goldeneye swam boldly 

 between the two ; a Wigeon brushed rudely past them, but its 

 impertinence remained unnoticed. The wild birds always fed 

 with a keen appetite, occasionally arching their necks and 

 shaking their bills laterally, ceasing at once to feed if any signs 

 of danger appeared, and gazing with stiffened necks in the 

 direction from which they apprehended danger. They appeared 

 to be very active birds, inured to the vicissitudes of a hard, 

 roving life. They never took long flight in our presence, but 

 we were assured by others that they occasionally left the lough 

 at dark in order to repair to the river Eden. The only flights 

 that we saw performed were undertaken in order to proceed 



