WHISTLING SWAN. 11 



black. The female merely differs in being somewhat 

 smaller. The young have all the plumage of a clear 

 grey : the fore part of the beak of a dull black : the 

 cere and the naked skin round the eyes of a livid 

 flesh colour: the legs of a reddish-grey : at the second 

 moult the plumage becomes mottled with white. 



The sternum of this bird is large and hollow ; the 

 arterial trachea forms two circumvolutions previous 

 to its entrance therein. 



AVild Swans inhabit the regions of the Arctic Circle, 

 and scarcely appear southward, except in severe win- 

 ters, when they are sometimes found in Holland, 

 France, and in this country, but more rarely in the 

 interior of the Continent. They are, however, often 

 observed in great numbers in some of the Western 

 Islands about October, where they remain till March, 

 retiring northward to breed, though a few continue 

 in the Orkneys, and breed in the fresh water lochs. 

 The female lays from five to seven eggs, of an olive- 

 green or whitish colour, placed in a nest composed of 

 withered leaves and stalks of reeds and rushes : she 

 is said to sit upon them six weeks before they are 

 hatched : both sexes are very attentive to their young, 

 and will suffer no enemy to approach them. 



Much has been said of the singing of the Swan, 

 and many beautiful and poetical descriptions have 

 been given of its dying song : no fiction of natural 

 history, no fable of antiquity, was ever more cele- 

 brated, oftener repeated, or better received : it occu- 

 pied the soft and lively imagination of poets, orators, 

 and even of philosophers, who adopted it as a truth 

 too pleasing to be doubted. The truth, however, is 



