DENY TAKING SWAN EGGS FROM NEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18629, 5 December 1928, Page 9

DENY TAKING SWAN EGGS FROM NEST.

Edward Becker and Charles Percy Cameron, for whom Mr Thomas appeared, were charged with taking the eggs of a protected bird on Lake Ellesmere on September 5. John Digby ranger, in evidence, said he saw, through the glasses, a boy in a boat, and a man with long body waders among the swans’ nests. Another man was also there among the nests. All were going from nest to nest, occasionally going to the boat. He later went to a hut where the men were and got their names. He searched this boat but found a wet sack which had some impressions in it which appeared to have been made by swan eggs. He found no eggs although he searched for an hour. Alex Freeman, egg collector for the Acclimatisation Society, said he was about a quarter of a mile away and saw two men among the nests. To all appearance they were collecting swan eggs. Charles Percy Cameron, licensee of the Mitre Hotel, Lyttelton, said that on the day in question he was looking for a better shooting position on a spit. He sat on swans’ nests to have a smoke and mav have felt the eggs, but he certainly did not take any of the eggs. The case was dismissed