226 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



sure, and every part takes a new grace with 

 a new motion. 



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 ; 



omits to mentiou this remarkable bird. An early notice 

 of its transmission to Europe occurs in a letter from 



Witsen to Dr Martin Lister, printed in the twentieth 

 volume of the Philosophical Transactions ; and Valen- 

 tyn published iu 1726 an account of two living speci- 

 mens brought to Batavia. Cook, Vancouver, Philip, 

 and White, mention it incidentally in their Voyages ; 

 and Labillardiere, in his narrative of the expedition of 

 D'Entrecasteaux in search of La Perouse, has given 

 a more particular description, together with a tolerable 

 figure. Another figure, of no great value, has also been 

 given by Dr Shaw in his Zoological Miscellany. Since 

 this period many living individuals have been brought 

 to England, where they thrive equally well with the 

 Emeus, the Kanguroos, and other Australian animals, 

 insomuch that they can now scarcely be regarded as 

 rarities even in this country. They are precisely 

 similar in form and somewhat inferior in size to the wild 

 and tame swans of the old world; but are perfectly 

 black in every part of their plumage, with the excep- 

 tion of the primary and a few of the secondary quill-fea- 

 thers, which are white. Their bill is of a bright red 

 above, and is surmounted at the base in the male by a 

 slight protuberance, which is wanting in the female. 

 Towards its anterior part it is crossed by a whitish 

 band. The under part of the bill is of a grayish white ; 

 and the legs and feet are of a dull ash-colour. In every 

 other respect, except in the mode of convolution of its 

 trachea, this bird perfectly corresponds with its well 

 known congeners. The black swans are found as 

 well in Van Diemaii's Land as in New South Wales 

 and on the western coast of New Holland. They 

 are generally seen in flocks of eight or nine together, 

 floating on a lake; and when disturbed, flying off 

 like wild geese in a direct line one after the other. 

 They are said to be extremely shy, so as to render it 

 difficult to approach within gunshot of them. Gar- 

 dens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society illustrated, 

 Vol. II. 



but in the wild, after a strange and wonderful 

 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 branches, 

 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 do- 

 mestication to produce this strange variety, 

 between birds otherwise the same, I will not 

 take upon me to determine. But certain 

 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 convolutions 

 of the wind- pipe may contribute to increase 

 the clangour of it ; for such is the harshness 

 of its voice, that the bird from thence has been 

 called the hooper. In neither is there the 

 smallest degree of melody ; nor have they, for 

 above this century, been said to give speci- 

 mens of the smallest musical abilities ; yet, 

 notwithstanding this, it was the general opi- 

 nion of antiquity, that the swan was the 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 pro- 

 fessedly by the Abbe Gedoyn, in the Trans- 

 actions of the Academy of Belles Lettres. 

 From these accounts, it appears that, while 

 Plato, Aristotle, and Diodorus Siculus, be- 

 lieved the vocality of the swan, Pliny and 

 Virgil seem to doubt that received opinion. 

 In this equipoise of authority, Aldrovandus 

 seems to have determined in favour of the 

 Greek philosophers ; and the form of the 

 windpipe in the wild swan, so much resem- 

 bling a musical instrument, inclined his be- 

 lief still more strongly. In aid of this also, 

 came the testimony of Pendasius, who affirmed, 

 that he had often heard swans sweetly singing 

 in the lake of Mantua, as he was rowed up 

 and down in a boat ; as also of Olaus Wor- 

 mius, 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 di- 



