THE SONG OF fffB SWAff. 



251 



monious, and its gracefully-rounded form and stately neck inspired 

 many poets, who have described it as the bird of gods and god- 

 desses. The poetical imagination of the Greeks, in short, asso- 

 ciated their most agreeable ideas with its name. It was one of 

 their pleasing fictions that in dying and breathing out its last sigh, 







g- 93- Mute and Whistling Swans. 



the swan celebrated its death by a melodious song; or, as Eloy 

 Johanneau has it 



" Le Cygne, a la fin de la vie, 



Fait entendre un touchant accord, 

 Et d'une voix aflfaiblie, 



Chante lui-meme en mort. " 



Buffon himself has drawn the portraiture of this bird in words 

 poetical, but certainly untrue : " The swan," he says, " reigns ovei 



