Sir, - The report (The Irish Times, April 22nd) of a black swan in Co Clare prompts me to report a previous occurrence of this bird which has not, to my knowledge, been hitherto on public record.
In a letter addressed to R.J. Ussher and dated March 29th, 1888, my great-grandfather, Dr Patrick Kane of Aunascaul, Co Kerry, stated in regard to Castlemaine Bay in the same county: "I shot on the same place about eight years since a bird very rare in this country, a specimen of the black swan, a native of Australia. I have made inquiries and could never find out how this bird came to this country."
Ussher was at the time collecting information for his book The Birds of Ireland, to be published in 1900. The black swan was not mentioned in the book, no doubt Ussher considering the bird to have wandered from a waterfowl collection, perhaps in Ireland, or in England or France where the species was well established by that time following its first introduction to Europe around 1791.
My father recollected the stuffed swan in the hallway up to the 1920s, when the house was sold and the contents dispersed. - Yours, etc.,
K. W. Supple Kane, Castlebellingham, Co Louth.