J72 SWAN. 



ORDER III ANSERES. 



BIRDS of the duck kind have smooth bills, covered with 

 skin, and nervous at the points, serving as strainers to their 

 food. Their legs are short, their feet formed for swim- 

 ming, and their toes connected by membranes. They 

 pass the greater part of their time in the water ; but 

 usually breed on land. 



THE SWAN. 



Of this elegant bird there are two varieties, the wild and 

 the tame. The former is a native of the hyperborean 

 regions, and only migrates into our temperate latitudes 

 when compelled by the severity of the cold. It frequents 

 the lakes and forests of Lapland, in common with other 

 aquatic fowls, during the summer months ; and there also 

 it rears its young. 



The wild swan is much less than the tame. It is of an 

 ash colour along the back and on the tips of the wings ; 

 the eyes are bare and yellow, and the legs are dusky. Its 

 cry is very loud, and may be heard at a great distance. 

 In the new settlements of Cumberland county, in New 

 Holland, black swans are seen as common as the white 

 are with us. 



The tame swan is too well known to require a minute 

 description. It is the largest of British birds, and the 

 most majestic and picturesque, when exercising its natural 

 propensities in the water. It lays seven or eight eggs, 

 which it is nearly two months in hatching. It subsists 

 chiefly on aquatic plants and roots, but sometimes devours 

 insects. 



The swan was considered as very delicate meat among 

 the ancients, by whom the goose, however, was reprobated 

 as wholly indigestible. Thus even tastes, are not ex- J 

 empted from the vicissitudes of revolution : as the goose 

 is become a high favourite with modern epicures ; while 



