184 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



the ■white plumage in its perfect purity 

 till the beginning of the third year. The 

 female sits upon five, six, or eight eggs, and 

 during the season of incubation, is sedulously 

 attended by her mate, who, however, gentle 

 and inoffensive at other times, becomes now 

 furious if any one approach the breeding 

 place, and advances with raised up plumes, 

 and every demonstration of excitement, to the 

 attack ; nor is the assault of so large and 

 powerful a bird, a trifling affair. A blow with 

 its wing would be likely to inflict a severe 

 injury. 



In former times the swan was in high 

 repute, and was to be found on the tables of 

 the great, and no banquet of ceremony or 

 state dinner was accounted complete, if swans 

 were not included in the costly bill of fare. 



The swan feeds on grain, various aquatic 

 plants, and the herbage along the sides of lakes 

 and rivers ; it soon becomes very familiar. 



The common tame swan is very long lived. 

 Its windpipe is simple without any flexure. 



Closely allied to the tame swan, or cygnus 

 olor, and formerly confounded with it, is a 

 species called by dealers the Polish swan. It 

 is the Cyyims mmv.tahilis of jMr. Yarrell, who 



