THE SWAN. 301 



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Swans change their color with their plumage. All the 

 stages of this bird's approach to maturity are slow, and 

 seem to mark its longevity. It is two months hatching; 

 a year in growing to its proper size ; and if, according to 

 Pliny's observation, that those animals that are longest 

 in the womb are the longest lived, the Swan is the longest 

 in the shell of any bird we know, and is said to be remark- 

 able for its longevity. Some say, that it lives three hun- 

 dred years ; and Willoughby, who is in general diffident 

 enough, seems to believe the report. A goose, as he justly 

 observes, has been known to live a hundred ; and the 

 Swan, from its superior size, and from its harder, firmer 

 flesh, may naturally be supposed to live still longer. 



Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in Eng- 

 land, that by an act of Edward the Fourth, none, except 

 the son of the king, was permitted to keep a swan, unless 

 possessed of five marks a year. By a subsequent act, the 

 punishment for taking their eggs was imprisonment for a 

 year and a day, and a fine at the king's will. At present 

 they are but little valued for the delicacy of their flesh ; 

 but many are still preserved for their beauty. We see 

 multitudes on the Thames and Trent; but no where 

 greater numbers than on the salt water inlet of the sea 

 near Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire. 



There are many modes practised in the United States of 

 destroying these princely ornaments of the water. In 

 shooting them whilst flying with the wind, Lawson, a 

 traveller in Carolina, says : "they are the most difficult 

 bird to kill I know, it being frequently necessary to take 

 sight ten or twelve feet before the bill." This I should 

 consider an unnecessary allowance, unless driven by a 

 hurricane, but, on ordinary occasions, the bill is aimed at, 

 and if going with a, breeze, at a long shot, a foot before the 

 bill would be quite sufficient. The covering is so extreme- 

 ly thick on old birds, that the largest drop shot will rarely 

 kill, unless the Swan is struck in the neck or under the 



