s w 



retreats in the breeding 1 season, whereas the white 

 one remains in the same locality without showing 

 much, if any, disposition to change its abode with the 

 seasons. Now, as the white swan, however more 

 familiar it may be in its habits than the other, cannot 

 in any sense of the word be considered as a tamed or 

 domesticated bird, we must look upon them both as 

 having 1 distinct habits, as well as distinct character?, 

 in a state of nature j and if there are not sufficient 

 grounds of specific distinction, truly we know not 

 between what two animals of the same germs such 

 grounds of distinction are to be found. 

 ""The whistling swan is a bird very generally distri- 

 buted over the northern parts of both the eastern and 

 the western continents. In severe winters they come 

 south in small flocks to the fresh waters near the 

 shores both in England and in Franco ; but it does 

 not appear that they reach the south of Europe, ex- 

 cepting very rarely, and when the winter storms are 

 more than usually general and severe. Early in the 

 spring they quit the more southerly places ; and in 

 the longitude of the British islands, they do not 

 remain to breed except in the far south, and then 

 only in a very small portion of the numbers that 

 make their appearance during the winter. We are 

 not aware that any have ever been found breeding 

 on the main land, excepting in that part of Caithness 

 and Sutherland which classes toward the Polar Sea ; 

 but they were, once at least, more numerous in the 

 Orkney and Shetland Isles, and some of the more 

 northerly of the Hebrides. In the Faroe Isles they 

 are, of course, still more numerous ; but the great 

 body of them must breed further to the north than 

 these islands ; for they arrive there, and also in Shet- 

 land, in numerous flocks about the month of October, 

 but earlier or later according to the character of the 

 season ; and when the severe weather sets in, they 

 diminish in numbers there by breaking into small 

 parties, and moving further to the south. If the win- 

 ter is comparatively open there, which it frequently 

 is in places but little elevated above the level of the 

 sea, they continue in considerable numbers upon the 

 fresh-water lakes, feeding upon the submerged roots 

 of aquatic plants, which, on account of the stems 

 lying completely down, are very farinaceous in these 

 high latitudes. 



As soon as they begin to feel the influence of the 

 spring, they collect their scattered parties, and retire 

 to the regions farther to the north to spend their 

 summer and rear their broods. Vast numbers of them 

 are said to be met with at that season in all the polar 

 countries in the north of Siberia, of Lapland, in 

 Iceland, in America, especially in the countries near 

 Hudson's Bay, and even in Greenland ; though more 

 are mentioned as being met with in Nova Zembla or 

 Spitzbergen. Being chiefly vegetable feeders, they 

 of course resort no farther to the north than the roots 

 and sterns of plants are to be met with in the waters ; 

 and they avoid mountainous districts, and resort only 

 to those in which there are lakes or rivers of consi- 

 derable magnitude. On their migratory flights they 

 ride very high in the air, and follow close to each 

 other. The high flight is no doubt taken as a secu- 

 rity against the attacks of the powerful falcons of the 

 north ; for which the swans, notwithstanding their 

 great size and strength, would be no match, if the 

 falcons were once to gain " the sky" of them. To 

 every thing above it in the air the falcon is compa- 

 ratively harmless ; and the swan has little or no means 



A N. 743 



of defence when it is on the wing, the stroke of the wing 

 being what it chiefly depends on for its defence against 

 an enemy, and this being but little available when the 

 bird is flying. By taking the sky of the falcon, the 

 swan is thus enabled to perform its migratory flight 

 in considerable safety. The flight of these swans, 

 when they are upon their migratory journeys, is much 

 more rapid than, from the size and weight of the 

 birds, one would be apt to suppose. As is the case 

 with all birds of lofty flight, it does not appear to be 

 so rapid as it really is. This is a point to which it is 

 very essential to attend to in all cases of animals, or 

 indeed of any thing else in motion. The portion of 

 the retina which the visual impression of the observed 

 object passes over is, of course the standard which 

 we have for the measure of its velocity. In conse- 

 quence of this, its motion appears to be slower than 

 it really is in the very same proportion that, its dis- 

 tance is increased, so that a motion at the distance of 

 five hundred yards requires to be ten times faster, in 

 order to have the same apparent speed as a motion 

 at jif'ty yards' distance. This renders it rather a dif- 

 ficult matter for an ordinary sportsman, however 

 expert he maybe in hitting partridges orjother ground 

 birds on the wing, to hit swuns when they are passing 

 over him in their high migratory flight ; and unless 

 he takes aim before them, at a distance which can be 

 determined only by experience, he is sure to miss. 

 The weight of swans, and their size, and the abun- 

 dance of their feathers, causes the wind to have very 

 great influence on the velocity of their flight. Hence 

 they almost invariably go with the wind in their 

 migrations, and wait, or even halt, on their journey it' 

 the wind is adverse. Before a stiff breeze, they can 

 make way at the rate of not less than one hundred 

 miles in the hour, so that they are then very soon 

 out of the observer's horizon. But against a wind of 

 equal strength, they can make very little way; and 

 upon a strong cross wind they drift very far to 

 leeward. 



The youn? swans, which are bred in Iceland and 

 the other northerly places, are not able to take their 

 departure the first year. They moult in August, at 

 which time they are incapable of flight ; and so the 

 people hunt them with dogs, or fell them with clubs, 

 their flesh being much relished in those countries 

 where dainties are but few* 



These birds have acquired a very considerable de- 

 gree of fictitious interest, and therefore, besidos the 

 exaggeration of the musical power of their " sweet 

 voices," there are various other improbable things 

 alleged of them. For instance, it is said that when 

 the frost begins to set in they assemble in multitudes, 

 and keep the water in a state of agitation to prevent 

 it from freezing, while the fact is that all the agitation 

 that swans could produce in the water of a lake would 

 just make it freeze the more readily. It is probable, 

 however, that they break the thin ice, and continue 

 breaking it at the same spot as fast as it freezes, for 

 this is the habit of many animals in the winter. 



Though, upon ordinary occasions, the wild swan is 

 a very peaceable animal, and never voluntarily makes 

 an attack upon any other animal, it is by no means 

 deficient either in power or in courage. The angle 

 of the wing is the part with which it strikes, and the 

 motion is so rapid, that the stroke is much more 

 powerful than one would suppose from the mere 

 volume of the striking instrument; but when we con- 

 sider that the effect of a stroke is made up of two 



