THE SWAN. 



12" 



young to the pool the inftant they are excluded. The fwan was con- 

 lidered as a high delicacy annong the ancients, while the goofe was ab- 

 ftained from; but the goofe is now the favourite; and the fwan fcldom 

 brought to table, but for oftentarion. At all times the duck was highly 

 efteemed. There have been many changes wrought in their colours, their 

 figures, and even their internal parts, by human cultivation. Thefc 

 birds, in a wild flate, are fimple in their colouringss but in the tame, no 

 two are exactly alike. 



Of the swan, tame and wild. 



THE Swan has long been rendered domeftic; and now we doubt 

 whether there be any of the tame kind in a (late of nature : The 

 wild fwan, ihough flrongly refembling in colour and form, is yet differ- 

 ent ; for it is very differently formed within. The wild fwan is lefs than the 

 tnme almofta fourth ; this weighs twenty pounds, the other only fixteen ; 

 the tame fwan is all white ; the wild bird is, along the back and the tips of 

 the wings, afti-coioured. In the tame fwan, the wind-pipe finks down 

 into the lungs in the ordinary manner j but in the v/iid, after a contor- 

 tion, like what we have feen in the crane, it enters a hole in the breall- 

 bone ; being refle(5led therein, returns by the fame aperture ; and, 

 being contrafted into a narrow compafs by a broad and bony cartilage, is 

 divided into two branches, which, before they enter the lungs, are di- 

 lated into two cavities. It is not eafy to account for this difference of 

 conformation; but it is more difHcult to reconcile the accounts of the an- 

 cients wuh the experience of the moderns, concerning the vocal powers 

 of this bird. The tame fwan is very filcnt, the wild one has a note ex- 

 tremely loud and difagreeable; and fuch is its harfhnefs, that the bird 

 from thence has been called the Hooper. It is probable the ancients had 

 ibnae m.ythological meaning in afcribing melody to the fv/an. 



Its chief fooa is corn, bread, herbs growing in the water, and roots and 

 leeds v/hich are found near the margin. It prepares a neft in fome re- 

 tired part of the bank, and chiefly where there is an iflft in the ftream. 

 It is com.pofed of water-plants, long grafs and flicks j and the male and 

 female afCft in forming it with great afllduity. The fwan lavs feven or 

 eight eggs, white, much larger than thofe of a goofe, with a hard, and 

 lomictimes a tuberous (hell. It fits near two months; its young are afli- 



Y 2 coloured 



