312 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



when the swans assemble together, and form a sort 

 of commonwealth ; it is during severe colds. When 

 the frost threatens to usurp their domain, they con- 

 gregate and dash the water with all the extent of 

 their wings, making a noise which is heard very far, 

 and which, whether in the day or in the night, is 

 louder in proportion to the intensity of the frost. 

 Their efforts are so effectual, that there are few 

 instances of a flock of swans having quitted the water 

 in the longest frosts ; though a single swan which 

 has strayed from the general body has sometimes 

 been arrested by the ice in the middle of the canals." 

 We shall close the subject with the very minute 

 observations of the Abbe Arnaud, derived from his 

 own experience. " One can hardly say,'* the Abbe 

 remarks, "that the swans of Chantilly sing : they cry ; 

 but their cries are truly and constantly modulated : 

 their voice is not sweet ; on the contrary, it is shrill, 

 piercing, and rather disagreeable ; I could compare it 

 to nothing better than the sound of a clarionet winded 

 by a person unacquainted with the instrument. Almost 

 all the melodious birds answer to the song of man, 

 and especially to the sound of instruments : I played 

 long on the violin beside our swans, on all the tones 

 and chords ; I even struck unison to their own 

 accents without their seeming to pay the smallest 

 attention ; but if a goose be thrown into the basin 

 where they swim with their young, the male, after 

 emitting some hollow sounds, rushes impetuously 

 upon the goose, and seizing it by the neck, he 

 plunges the head repeatedly under water, striking it 

 at the same time with his wings ; it would be all over 

 with the goose, if it were not rescued. The swan, with 

 his wings expanded, his neck stretched, and his head 

 erect, comes to place himself opposite to his female, 

 and utters a cry to which the female replies by an- 

 other, which is lower by half a tone* The voice of 



