SEA-TOWL SHOOTING, 125 



Tlius ushering to birth with dulcet sounds 

 The god of harmony, and hence seven strings 

 Hereafter to his golden lyre he gave ; 

 For ere the eighth soft concert was begun 

 He sprung to birth." — Dod's Callimachus. 



These bkds are considered at the head of -the web-footed bird?, 

 md to shoot them is considered a great and honoui-able achieve- 

 (nent among gunners. The hoofers or wild swans are very easily 

 iiUed, if the fire be directed towards the head or under the wing ; 

 3ut they are ahnost shot proof in other parts of their body. The 

 light of the swan is very rapid. Hearne says, " Notwithstanding 

 heir size, these birds are so extremely swift on the wing wlien in 

 iill feather, as to make them more difficult to shoot than ahnost 

 my others, it being frequently _ necessary to take sight ten or 

 twelve feet before the bills. This, however, is only when they are 

 fljdng before the wind in a brisk gale, at which time they seldom_ fly 

 it a less rate than an hundred miles an hour ; but when flying 

 icross the wind, or against it, they are not able to make any great 

 progress." 



The swan measures five feet in length, and above seven in 

 breadth, and weighs from thirteen to sixteen pounds. The biU is 

 three inches long, of a yellowish hue from the base to the middle, 

 and thence to the ti]3, black. The bare space from the bill over 

 the eye and eyelids is yeUow; and the entire plumage in adult 

 birds is of a pure white • and they are clothed, next to the skin, 

 with a thick fine down. The legs are black. 



This species of swan usually congrcgate together — keeping in 

 groups or families, except at the pairing season, and when the 

 severe frosts of winter overtake them. At this season they 

 assemble in prodigious ctuantities, near great rivers and lake ,_ 

 situated in thinly inhabited countries in the northern parts ( f 

 Europe, Asia, and America. When the weather becomes veiy 

 severe, they shape their flight very high in the air, and divide_ their 

 number in quest of more genial temperature. _ In such hard Avintei s 

 they are sometimes met with in various sections of Great Britain, 

 and in other more southern countries of Europe. The rule as io 

 their migrations has been observed in America. They do not, how- 

 ever, remain longer than to the ajoproacliing spring, when they 

 again retire northward to the arctic regions to breed. In these 

 movements to and fro, a few straggHng birds stop_ short, and 

 perform the offices of incubation by the way; for it has been 

 ascertained that they breed in the Hebrides, the Orkney, Shetland, 

 and other sohtary isles. But the great body of them go far north, 

 and are to be met with in the large rivers and lakes near Hudson's 

 iBay, and those of Kamtschatka, Lapland, and Iceland. They are 

 |Said to return to the latter place in flocks of about a hundred at a 

 time in the spring, and also to pour in upon that island from the north, 

 in nearly the same manner, on their way southward in the autumn. 



