664 



AVES— SWAN. 



the feathers is a very thick, soft down, which is made an article of com- 

 merce, for purposes of both use and ornament. The windpipe sinks down 

 into the lungs in the ordinary manner; and it is the most silent of all the 

 feathered tribe ; it can do nothing more than hiss, which it does on receiving 

 any provocation. In these respects, it is very different from the wild or 

 whistling swan. 



This beautiful bird is as delicate in its appetites as it is elegant in its form. 

 Its chief food is corn, bread, herbs growing in the water, and roots and seeds, 

 which are found near the margin. At the time of incubation, it prepares a 

 nest in some retired part of the bank, and chiefly where there is an islet in 

 the stream. This is composed of water plants, long grass, and sticks; and 

 the male and female assist in forming it with great assiduity. The swan 

 lays seven or eight white eggs, one every other day, much larger than those 

 of a goose, with a hard, and sometimes a tuberous shell. It sits six weeks 

 before its young are excluded ; which are ash colored when they first leave 

 the shell, and for some months after. It is not a little dangerous to ap- 

 proach the old ones, when their little family are feeding around them. Their 

 fears'as well as their pride, seem to take the alarm, and, when in danger, 

 the old birds carry off the young ones on their back. A female has been 

 known to attack and drown a fox, which was swimming towards her nest; 

 they are able to throw down and trample on youths of fifteen or sixteen ; 

 and an old swan can break the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing. 



Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in England, that, by an 

 act of Edward the Fourth, none, except the son of the king, was permitted 

 to keep a swan, unless possessed of a freehold to the value of five marks a 

 year. By a subsequent act, the punishment for taking their eggs was im- 

 prisonment for a year and a day, and a fine at the king's will. At present, 

 they are not valued for the delicacy of their flesh ; but numbers are still pre* 



