386 THE MUTE SWAN. 



to shed just one drop of blood no more. I would be as hard 

 upon him as Portia was upon the flesh-cutting Jew : 



" This bond doth give here no jot of blood ; 

 The words expressly are a limb of swan ; 

 Take then thy bond, take thou thy limb of swan ; 

 But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed 

 One drop of cygnine blood, thy clumsiness 

 Shall brand the name of ' Bungler' on thy back. 

 Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the limb ; 

 Shed thou no blood ; nor cut thou less nor more, 

 But just the very limb ; if thou tak'st more 

 Or less than just the limb, thou shalt bewail 

 The consequence." 



If any brook runs into and from the pond where they are 

 to remain, their escape through that channel must be pre- 

 vented by sheep-netting, hurdles, pales, or other fencing, 

 which should be continued some distance inland, lest they 

 should walk away, if they cannot swim away. This pre- 

 caution will be found particularly necessary if there is any 

 main stream in the immediate neighbourhood. A feeding- 

 trough may be fixed for them in the pond, in the part where 

 it is most desirable that they should be accustomed to display 

 themselves. Those who are fastidious about the sight of such 

 an object, or who wish to have it thought that the Swans keep 

 so much in view from purely disinterested motives, (from simple 

 affection to their masters, not from the greedy love of corn,) 

 may contrive to have it hid beneath a bank, or behind a tree 

 or shrub. The trough must be fixed in the pond, on two firm 

 posts, within arm's length of the shore, raised high enough 

 from the water to prevent Ducks from stealing the food con* 

 tained therein, having a cover which lifts up by hinges, and 

 so forms a lid, to keep out Rats and Sparrows, and open only 

 in front. Many persons, however, feed their Swans by simply 

 throwing the corn into shallow water. They will skim the 



