326 ANATID^. 



stream is strong, the old Swan will sink herself sufficiently 

 low to bring her back on a level with the water, when the 

 cygnets will get upon it, and in this manner are conveyed to 

 the other side of the river, or into stiller water. Each family 

 of Swans on the river has its own district ; and if the limits 

 of that district are encroached upon by other Swans, a pur- 

 suit immediately takes place, and the intruders are driven 

 away. Except in this instance, they appear to live in a state 

 of the most perfect harmony. The male is very attentive to 

 the female, assists in making the nest, and when a sudden 

 rise of the river takes place, joins her with great assiduity 

 in raising the nest sufficiently high to prevent the eggs 

 being chilled by the action of the water, though sometimes 

 its rise is so rapid, that the whole nest is washed away and 

 destroyed." 



The family continue to associate through the winter, but 

 the following spring the parent birds drive away the young 

 of the previous year, and oblige them to shift for themselves. 

 Their food consists of the softer parts of water plants, roots, 

 aquatic insects, and occasionally small fish ; also grain and 

 bread. 



The Swan being identified with Orpheus, and called also 

 the Bird of Apollo the god of music, powers of song have 

 been often attributed to it, and as often denied. It is, how- 

 ever, perfectly true that this bird has a soft low voice, rather 

 plaintive and with little variety, but not disagreeable. The 

 Author has often heard it in the spring, and sometimes 

 later in the season, when the bird was moving slowly about 

 with its young. Colonel Hawker, in his sporting work 

 (p. 261), has printed a few bars of the " Swan's melody, 

 formed with two notes, C, and the minor third (E flat), and 

 the musician kept working his head as if delighted with his 

 own performance." 



The Mute Swan is generally looked upon as a domesticated 

 bird, and the individuals which are occasionally shot in 

 winter are assumed to have strayed from their usual haunts. 

 This is not necessarily the case, for the Mute Swan still 

 breeds in a perfectly wild state at no gre'ater distance than 



