SONGS. 



307 



the male, according to M. Vaillant, being remarkable 

 for its song, which it utters every morning and even- 

 ing, and not uncommonly continues it the whole night. 

 Each strain is continued in a loud tone for more than a 

 minute, and after a pause it begins anew. While it 

 is singing, it is so regardless of its own safety, that 

 any one may approach very near it, but at other times 

 it is suspicious, and takes flight on the slightest 

 alarm*. 



Chanting Falcon. 



Another still more remarkable exception might be 

 adduced in the instance of the swan, the largest of 

 singing-birds, according to Albertus Magnus f, could 

 we set down as facts all that has been said of it, not 

 only by poets but by philosophers and naturalists. 



* Oiseaux d'Afrique, i. 120. 

 t Apud Aldrovandi Ornilh, iii. 2. 



