156 MUTE SWAN. 



second moult very little grey plumage remains. At two years old 

 they are quite white, and they breed the third year. 



Swans live to a great age. Marked Swans on the Thames have 

 been known to live for 50 years. 



After many a summer dies the Swan. 



Tennyson— r/<AonM«. 



They are very careful of their young, and, though generally 

 good-tempered and docile, when they are breeding — 



The peaceful monarch of the lake, 



as the poets delight to call him, becomes very pugnacious and 

 savage, the terror of all who approach him. The female will often 

 give the cygnets a ride on her back, but if danger arises, like the 

 domestic fowl she takes them under her wings. 



So doth the Swan her downy cygnets save, 

 Keeping them prisoners underneath her wings. 



Shakespeare— 7. Kmg Henry VI., V. 3. 



The Mute Swan has a soft, low voice, with but little variety 

 in it. It is not disagreeable, but 



The Swan's wild music by the Iceland lake. 



Mrs. Hemans. 



is not often heard. 



Homer delights in the Swan, and tells us how 



They o'er the windings of Cayster's springs 



Stretch their long necks, and clap their rustling wings; 



Now tower aloft and course in airy rounds, 



Now light with noise ; with noise the field resounds. 



Pope— JZiad 2. 



Classical history connects the Swan with the God of Music, 

 and hence poems of song have often been attributed to it. The 

 Swan was consecrated to Apollo and the Muses, and was believed 

 to derive the power of foretelling his death from Apollo, the God of 

 Prophecy and Divination. " They become prophetic," says Plato 

 (Fhaedo), " and foreseeing the happiness which they shall enjoy 

 in another state, are in greater ecstacy than they have before 

 experienced," and he attributes it to the same sort of ecstacy, 

 that good men sometimes enjoy at that awful hour. 



