Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/347

Rh summer as the snow thawed: in most cases large accumulations of the dung of these animals were lying close to the nests. I see no reason to suppose that this animal hybernates, for on the return of light, with a temperature at —50° and a deep mantle of snow covering the land, the Lemming was to be seen on the surface of the snow, close to its syphuncle, blinking at the bright rays of the sun, and during the depths of winter there could be no greater difficulty in procuring food than in March. Sometimes I came across the Lemming at some distance from the hole by which it retreats to its galleries under the snow, and it was interesting to see the rapidity with which it could disappear, throwing itself on its head, its fore-paws worked with great rapidity, rotating outwards, and throwing up a cloud of snow-dust some six inches high. Later on in the year I have seen a Lemming baffle the attempts at capture of a Long-tailed Skua, Stercorarius longicaudatus, by the same tactics. The female brings forth from three to five at a birth in June and July, making a comfortable nest of grass for their reception.

 

Wild Swans, Cygnus ferus or Bewickii.—Are often observed during winter on their passage to the mountain loughs of Erris, but only occasionally seen on the tidal parts of the Moy. I first met with them on the estuary during the severe winter of 1860; on the 28th December I observed three Swans, amongst a large flock of Wigeon, feeding on the Zostera along the Moy view shore. It being flood-tide they fed closer to the land as the water deepened, and as I watched them from behind a fence I remarked that they occasionally uttered a low sweet note. After some time the flowing tide brought them within range, and although I severely wounded two by the same shot, one having a broken wing, they unfortunately got away. My dogs, never having seen such large birds before,  Rh