594 



A HISTORY OF 



ture. In the exhibition of its form, there are 

 no broken or harsh lines, no constrained or 

 catching motions; but the roundest contours, 

 and the easiest transitions ; the eye wanders 

 over every part with insatiable pleasure, and 

 every part takes a new grace with a new mo- 

 tion. 



This fine bird has long been rendered do- 

 mestic ; and it is now a doubt whether there 

 be any of the tame kind in a state of nature. 

 The wild swan, though so strongly resembling 

 this in colour and form, is yet a different bird ; 

 for it is very differently formed within. The 

 wild swan is less than the tame by almost a 

 fourth; for as the one weighs twenty pounds, 

 the other only weighs sixteen pounds and 

 three quarters. The colour of the tame swan 

 is all over white ; that of the wild bird is, 

 along the back and the tips of the wings, of 

 an ash-colour. But these are slight differen- 

 ces compared to what are found upon dissec- 

 tion. In the tame swan, the windpipe sinks 

 down into the lungs in the ordinary manner; 

 but in the wild, after a strange and wonder- 

 ful contortion, like what we have seen in the 

 crane, it enters through a hole formed in the 

 breast-bone ; and being reflected therein, re- 

 turns by the same aperture; and being con- 

 tracted into a narrow compass by a broad and 

 bony cartilage, it is divided into two branch- 

 es, which, before they enter the lungs, are di- 

 lated, and, as it were, swollen out into two 

 cavities. 



Such is the extraordinary difference be- 

 tween these two animals, which externally 

 seem to be of one species. Whether it is in 

 the power of long-continued captivity and 

 domestication to produce this strange varie- 

 ty, between birds otherwise the same, I will 

 not take upon me to determine. But cer- 

 tain it is, that our tame swan is no where to 

 be found, at least in Europe, in a state of 

 nature. 



As it is not easy to account for this differ- 

 ence of conformation, so it is still more diffi- 

 cult to reconcile the accounts of the ancients 

 with the experience of the moderns, concern- 

 ing the vocal powers of this bird. The tame 

 swan is one of the most silent of all birds; 

 and the wild one has a note extremely loud 

 and disagreeable. It is probable, the con- 

 volutions of the windpipe may contribute to 



increase the clangor of it; for such is the 

 harshness of its voice, that the bird from 

 thence has been called the hooper. In nei- 

 ther is there the smallest degree of melody ; 

 nor have they, for above this century, been 

 said to give specimens of the smallest musi- 

 cal abilities; yet, notwithstanding this, it was 

 the general opinion of antiquity, that the 

 swan was a most melodious bird ; and that 

 even to its death, its voice went on improving. 

 It would show no learning to produce what 

 they have said upon the music of the swan : 

 it has already been collected by Aldrovandus; 

 and still more professedly by the Abbe Ge- 

 doyn, in the Transactions of the Academy of 

 Belles Lettres. From these accounts it ap- 

 pears, that, while Plato, Aristotle, and Diodo- 

 rus Siculus, believed the vocality of the swan, 

 Pliny and Virgil seem to doubt that received 

 opinion. In this equipoise of authority Al- 

 drovandus seems to have determined in fa- 

 vour of the Greek philosophers; and (he form 

 of the windpipe in the wild swan, so much re- 

 sembling a musical instrument, inclined his 

 belief still more strongly. In aid of this also, 

 came the testimony of Pendasius, who affirm- 

 ed, that he had often heard swans sweetly 

 singing in the lake of Mantua, as he was row- 

 ed up and down in a boat ; as also of Olaus 

 Wormius, who professed that many of his 

 friends and scholars had heard them singing. 

 " There was," says he, " in my family, a very 

 honest young man, John Rostorph, a student 

 in divinity, and a Norwedian by nation. This 

 man did, upon his credit, and with the inter- 

 position of an oath, solemnly affirm, that once, 

 in the territory of Dronten, as he was stand- 

 ing on the sea-shore, early in the morning, he 

 heard an unusual and sweet murmur, com- 

 posed of the most pleasant whistlings and 

 sounds; he knew not at first whence they 

 came, or how they were made, for he saw no 

 man near to prod uce them ; but, looking round 

 about him, and climbing to the top of a cer- 

 tain promontory, he there espied an infinite 

 number of swans gathered together in a bay, 

 and making the most delightful harmony; a 

 sweeter in all his life- time he had never 

 heard." These were accounts sufficient at 

 least to keep opinion in suspense, though in 

 contradiction to our own experience: but Al- 

 drovandus, to put, as he supposed, the ques- 



