282 THE WILD SWAN. 



the Irish coasts, and, indeed, to the interior of that 

 island. As we have before alluded to the written 

 rumour of its melodious quality, we can ourself assert, 

 that we have heard sounds proceeding from a flight of 

 swans vastly more harmonious than the race of water 

 fowl ai'e in the habit of producing. They were not, 

 so far as our ear could detect, separate notes, but 

 rather a consecutive and combined harmony, — an idea 

 which may be imperfectly given by comparing it with 

 the sustained tones of an organ. 



It is a remarkable feature in the natural histoiy 

 of tliis bird, that wherever it is found in a wild 

 state, it is white, so to speak ; or, at least, but 

 little varies from that hue, except in New Holland, 

 where it is black, or of a tint scarcely removed from 

 black. 



Perhaps, in animated natm'e, there is not a more 

 beautiful sight than the flight of the royal family of 

 the swans. There they are, winging their stately 

 way over morasses and marshes, over lakes and lake- 

 lets, perchance from icy Siberia, or inhospitable Lap- 

 land : from Iceland or Spitzbergen, or far away from 

 the arctic and unkno^vn regions of America, do they 

 hither come. These climes were their summer dwell- 

 ings and breeding-places, with Nonvay and Sweden, 

 and other ice-bound EurojDean lands ; for there the 

 sun never sets for weeks, but nm'ses innumerable 

 beds of insect food for their use and service. Pro- 

 fessor Wilson thus imaginatively and aptly describes 

 a flock covering the wide waters at the head of Loch 



