BIRDS 263 



from one end of the lough to the other. Nor did we hear any 

 cry, except that of the male calling to his mate, to whom he 

 was devotedly attached. As spring advanced the wild Swans 

 seemed to become more shy and restless, and on March 26 we 

 found that they had forsaken us. No Swans were shot in Lake- 

 land to my knowledge in the winter 1889-90 ; but in December 

 1890 a few Bewick's Swans visited the neighbourhood of the 

 Solway. It is probable that some of the number visited More- 

 cambe Bay, where Mr. Sharpe saw some Swans in January 1891, 

 though their specific identity remained undecided. Between 

 the 7th and 14th of December 1890 six wild Swans were seen on 

 a piece of water at Crookhurst, near Allonby. Two wild Swans 

 made their appearance at Ravenglass on December 9. Joseph 

 Farren the fisherman approached a herd of ten while they were 

 resting on the sea-beach the following day. The same man met 

 with a much larger herd of Swans in the spring of 1888. On 

 the 5th of March that year he saw a party of twenty-six Swans 

 circling over the Eavenglass estuary, evidently anxious to alight, 

 a wish frustrated by there being a good many people about, in 

 consequence of which they headed off in a N.W. direction, as 

 though making for the Isle of Man. He described them as ' a 

 good bit less in size than the tame Swans/ so that they were 

 almost certainly a party of Bewick's Swans. A solitary bird 

 was noticed at the same time by Mr. Eoss. Mr. Nicol reported 

 that six Swans were seen near Skinburness on Dec. 4, 1890; 

 that he shot one (which he sent to me) on December 1 3 ; a 

 second being secured about the same time and sent to Mr. 

 Barker by John Bell. The bird which reached me was an adult 

 female, in very poor condition, only weighing 9j lbs. Mr. 

 Barker and I weighed his bird in the flesh at his house, and 

 found that it turned the scales at lOf lbs. It proved on dis- 

 section to be a male. When shooting on Burgh marsh on 

 December 15, 1890, I happened to observe a large white bird 

 sitting alone upon the open marsh. All at once it rose, and 

 speedily revealed its identity as its long outstretched neck came 

 within the field of the glasses. Fortunately for my companion, 

 Mr. Thorpe, who, as a sportsman, was anxious to bag a Swan, the 

 bird took a long low flight across the marsh, and alighted in a 



