54 



MUTE SWAN. 



TAME SWAN. 



PLATE CLXXXVIII. FIG. II. 



Cygnus olor, . . . Jenyxs. 

 Cygnus mansuetus, . . . Gould. 

 Anas olor, .... Pennant. Bewick. 



The Swan disposes its nest on the ground, near the 

 water side, or on some mound on an island in the river 

 or lake. It is made of rushes and flags, and if the 

 water threatens to rise, more materials, which the male 

 bird brings, and the female works in, are added to the 

 deposit under the eggs, which are thus gradually raised 

 further out of danger. 



The eggs are from five or six, to seven or eight in 

 number, older birds laying the larger, and younger the 

 fewer numbers respectively. They are of a dull 

 greenish white colour. 



Incubation continues for from five to six weeks. 

 After being hatched for one day, they follow the gui- 

 dance of their parents to the water, and have but little 

 instruction, beyond that instinctively given them by nature, 

 in the art of swimming about and feeding themselves. 

 Still, "The attention," says Meyer, "bestowed by the 

 old birds upon the young is incessant; and when fati- 

 gued by the strength of the stream, or requiring to be 

 removed to a far distance, too great for their young 



