379 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE MUTE SWAN. (Cygnus Olor.') 



THE portrait of the Mute Swan is copied from one in No- 

 lan's "Treatise on the Domestic Fowl/'.&c. Of this monarch 

 of the lake, Dixon says : 



The Swan is, beyond all question, the bird to place, as a 

 finishing stroke of art, on the smooth lake which expands be- 

 fore our mansions. It is perfectly needless, however delightful, 

 to quote Milton and others, lauding the arched neck, the white 

 wings, the oary feet, and so on. Its superb beauty is undeniable 

 and acknowledged ; and, to borrow an apt metaphor, we do not 

 wish, in the present volume, to thresh straw that has been 

 thrice threshed before, to repeat how lovely the Swan is on the 

 silver lake, " floating double, swan and shadow '" for we 

 might thus run, scissors in hand, through the whole Corpus 

 Poetarum. Our object, in short, is simply to point out the 

 best mode of managing them and keeping them. 



Any one who lives on the banks of a moderately sized 

 stream, and has a Swan-right on that stream, will probably 

 also have the means of keeping a keeper, who will save him 

 every trouble. But there are a great many people, occupiers 

 of large farm-houses, villas, country mansions, or moated resi- 

 dences, persons, perhaps, of considerable wealth, who have no 

 manorial rights, no ancient Swan-mark belonging to their 



