THE MUTE SWAN. 383 



among birds, just as they would separate the red and the 

 white men on a chess-board, but that there is a most perplex- 

 ing intermediate multitude, neither wild nor yet tameable, but 

 usually spoken of as "familiar" or "half domesticated," a 

 term without meaning dodging, like camp-followers, on the 

 offskirts of human society, but determined never to enlist in 

 the drilled and disciplined ranks, playing the game of " off and 

 on," but always ending with the " off." Such .are, among 

 many others, the Partridge, Rats and Mice, the House Spar- 

 row, the Water Hen, and, at a still greater distance, I believe 

 and fear, the whole genus of Swans proper. 



Is there nothing resembling this amongst the human race ? 

 The mention of the word " Gipsy" will set thought-capable 

 persons a-thinking. " Oh ! but they have been neglected, 

 uneducated, ill-cared for ! Educate ! Educate !" say well-in- 

 tentioned persons, who seem to declare that the soul of man is 

 a carte blanche, and who would thereby, unthinkingly, deny 

 the doctrine of Original Sin, as asserted by the Church of 

 England. But I have seen enough, both of bird and mankind, 

 to know that the heart of neither is a carte llanche you 

 cannot write, on either, whatever may be your pleasure there 

 to inscribe. Your duty, in both cases, is to take them as you 

 find them, and make the best you can of them for their in- 

 terest, which will be found eventually to coincide with your 

 own. 



Swans, then, are ferae naturae to all intents and purposes; 

 of that there is no doubt, whatever the law of the matter may 

 be : but, although capricious birds, wild in their very nature, 

 like most living creatures they have some attachment to place. 

 The first point, therefore, is to settle them agreeably in their 

 destined home. Old birds are less likely to be contented with 

 a new abode, unless very distant from their former one, and 

 are seldom to be obtained in the market. Cygnets may be 

 procured every autumn ; if they have been put up to fat for 



