A HETERODOX SUGGESTION. 191 



labels would be of little service in enabling uninitiated people to 

 indentify the different species. That is very true ; but a little 

 help is better than no help at all ; and we are by no means sure 

 but that, properly arranged along by the side of the water, in 

 some suitable and conspicuous position, a series of labels would 

 teach a great deal more than might at first be supposed. It will 

 certainly do no harm to try the experiment ; so, pray Mr. Woods- 

 and-forests, be so good as give us the names of our friends, aud 

 tell us, too, whence they originally came. 



It would open the eyes of a good many of the habitues of the 

 park to see it duly set forth that there are no less than four or five 

 distinct species of those noble birds, the Swans, to be seen upon 

 the ornamental water ; but with eyes open to the fact the points 

 of difference between the different species would soon be recog- 

 nized. The tame Swan (Cygnus olor), distinguished from its 

 congeners by the caruncle or berry on the bill, as also by the 

 graceful carriage of its neck, which, when the spirit of the bird ia 

 up, gives it such an air of grandeur on the water : 



" The Swan with arched neck, 

 Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows 

 Her state with oaiy feet." 



It is commonly said that this graceful peculiarity in the bear 

 irg of the Swan is owing to the fact that it has an unusual 

 number of vertebrae in the neck ; but that explanation, although 

 a true one so far as it goes, is not of itself sufficient. All the 

 Swans are similarly endowed in that respect, and yet none 

 but Cyynus olor knows how to throw its neck into the elegant 

 curve in question. How shall we account for the difference ? 

 It is very heterodox zoologically no doubt, but we are ourselves 

 inclined to think that it is simply the result of good breeding, 

 one of those courtly airs which the bird has caught from its 

 long association with royal and other courtly beauties. But that 

 it early caught the trick we have the most positive evidence ; for 

 in an ancient cameo representing Leda and the Swan, the bird 

 has the same elegant bending carriage as is now observable. 



The ornithologists have revenged themselves upon the ancient 

 and mediaeval writers or their fables respecting the vocal powers of 

 the Swan, by dubbing it the mute Swan. In this, however, they 

 have simply gone from one extreme to another. It was no doubt 



