BRITISH BIRDS. 109 



The two last species are migratoiy, and occasionally 

 visit Great Britain, but more especially Scotland. They 

 are all susceptible of domestication, especially if the eggs 

 are hatched by a barn-door fowl, or a duck, or an ordinary 

 goose. 



Swan, or Mute Swan. — This bird, as everybody knows, 

 is of snow-white plumage, but the bill is orange yellow, 

 and the knob and parts surrounding it black ; the legs, 

 toes, and webs black. The female is smaller, and her 

 knob is much less conspicuous than that of the male. The 

 young are ashen grey, but by the end of their first year 

 they have put on the adult livery, and cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from their parents. Length, from 4 feet 6 

 inches to 5 feet. 



It is doubtful if the swan now occurs in Britain in a 

 wild state ; but there is no question that the numerous 

 specimens which are found on the Thames, and many 

 ponds and small private lakes, are the direct descendants 

 of ancestors that were at one time wild. 



The swan feeds on aquatic plants entirely, and, if a few 

 molluscs and insects are swallowed, it is along with the 

 former, and not intentionally. It is, therefore, absurd to 

 credit, as some have done, these noble birds with the 

 destruction of fish spawn and fry. 



Few birds have a more majestic appearance than the 

 swan when, with plumes displayed to their full extent, he 

 grandly moves along upon the placid surface of a lake ; 

 but, when flying with his long neck stretched out to its 

 full extent before him, and his short round wings flapping 

 laboriously to keep him up, he looks a little bit ridiculous. 

 Nor is he much more graceful on dry land, where his walk 

 is a waddle, and his long neck seems to be in his way. 

 The water is evidently his element, and he ought to leave 

 the air and the earth alone. 



