BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 259 
Judging by weights and measurements, aU the old local 
records of wild swans would seem to refer to Whoopers • 
but the anxiety of the lucky wild-fowler to make out his 
trophy to be as big as possible may perhaps have led him 
to exaggerate, and so deprived us of many records of 
the occurrence of Bewick's Swan. Nowadays this species 
IS beheved to be more frequently observed on our shores 
than the Whooper. In 1843 Sir William Jardine writes : 
A distmot species of Swan only began to attract 
attention about the years 1827 or 1828, although one or 
two Ornithologists had previously examined specimens 
and pointed out distinctions. Soon after, its dedication, 
to hand down to posterity the Ornithologist of Newcastle 
b.e., Thomas Bewick, the Engraver], was by common 
consent recognised. Specimens have since been procured 
m several districts of England, Scotland and Ireland, 
but It IS by no means common."* In 1838 he wrote from 
Jardine Hall to his friend P. J. Selby Swans more 
than usually common; but so far as I can learn aU the 
common species. I have been looking out for a Bewicki 
for myself but without success."! Sir W. Jardine in an MS 
note m his personal copy of the Naturalist's Library records 
l«7r,«Tr™?^' °f '"^^^ ^^"^^ ^'^"t tl'e winter of 
1870-1871 in Dumfriesshire and Galloway. They were in 
company with others which in all probabihty would be of 
the same species." 
In the winter of 1880 a flock of eleven of these birds was 
seen, and Mabie Moss " recorded in 1891 that " Bewick's 
bwan has been much oftener noticed than the Whooper "t 
A party of six was identified at the mouth of the Nith on 
March 2nd, 1900,§ and they are frequently noticed 
SerT ^""^ (Annan), especiaUy in severe. 
♦ Nal. Lib., 1843, Vol. XIV., p. 96. 
t Sir W. Jardine, in litt. to P. J. Selby, March 28th, 1838. 
t Dumfries Courier and Herald, January 22nd, 1891. 
5 -^"n. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1900, p. 120. 
S 2 
