MUTE SWAN. 119 



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 

 under the influence of returning spring the parent birds drive 

 away from them the young brood 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 : a Swan has been seen to eat a small 

 roach ; they also eat 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. I 

 have heard it often in the spring, and sometimes later in the 

 season, when moving slowly about with its young. Colonel 

 Hawker, in his sporting work, at page 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, it is said, kept 

 working his head as if delighted with his own performance." 



These bii-ds are found wild in Russia and Siberia ; and 

 Mr. Bennett observes that it is found in a wild state in al- 

 most every country in Europe. Bechstein particularly men- 

 tions Lithuania, Poland, and eastern Prussia. In Germany, 

 young birds that have not been pinioned migrate in autumn. 

 M. Temminck says it is abundant in Holland, and is found 

 in France, Provence, and Italy. Mr. Strickland says this 

 species visits Smyrna Bay in winter ; and the Russian natu- 

 ralists include it among the birds found in the countries 

 between the Black and the Caspian Seas. 



In England, Dr. Turner notices the Swan with the black 

 tubercle on the beak, in his book on Birds, published in 



