THE MUTE SWAN. 393 



the shells, and that the Hen will go on sitting till the birth of 

 her young ones is complimented with that portentous salute. 

 A Swan might boast, with Owen Grlendower 



" At my nativity 



The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, 

 Of burning cressets ; know, that at my birth 

 The frame and the foundations of the earth 

 Shook like a coward." 



Let us not reply in the contemptuous language of Hotspur, 

 nor altogether reject the popular idea ; the close sultry weather 

 which sometimes for two or three days precedes a tempest, 

 would hasten the development of Chicks that were nearly ar- 

 rived at the hatching point. What effect electrical oscillations 

 have on animal life we as yet know not, but our own feelings 

 tell us they have some. 



The happy parents will charge themselves with the entire 

 maintenance of their tender young, if they have but the range 

 of a large extent of river banks and shallow water ; will lead 

 them up the quiet ditches, point out the juicy blade, the float- 

 ing seed, the struggling insect, the sinuous worm ; will then 

 steer to shoals left by some circling eddy, and, stirring up the 

 soft sediment with their broad feet, show that minute but nu- 

 tritious particles may thence be extracted. As hunger is 

 satisfied and weariness comes on, the mother will sink in the 

 stream till her back becomes an easy landing-place, and the 

 nurslings are thus transferred, in a secure and downy cradle, to 

 fresh feeding-places. 



But in a restricted beat they must not be left altogether to 

 themselves. A glently sloping bank will enable them to repair 

 at pleasure to the grassy margin. The old ones must have 

 plenty of corn, which they will by-and-by teach their young 

 to eat; tender vegetables from the kitchen-garden, such as 

 endive, lettuce, or cress, will help to sustain them, besides 

 attracting those soft-bodied water-creatures that are of all food 



