SWAN. NATATORES. CYGNUS. 281 



bitants of which the down and feathers are of great value, 

 not only for domestic comfort, but as an article of barter, 

 they are hunted down and killed in great numbers in the 

 month of August, at which time the old birds are unable to 

 fly, from having cast their quill-feathers. At this season the 

 natives assemble in bodies, in the places where Swans are 

 most abundant, attended by dogs, and mounted upon small 

 but active horses, purposely trained to pass over bogs and 

 through marshy soil ; the chase then commences, and many 

 are ridden down ; but the greater number are caught by the 

 dogs, which always seize by the neck, a mode of attack that 

 causes the bird to lose its balance and become an easy prey. 

 The fabulous account of the sweet singing of the Swan be- 

 fore death, which gave rise to so much beautiful allusion in 

 the writings of the ancient poets, is now universally explod- 

 ed * ; and the voice of the present species (oftener heard than 

 that of any other) is generally allowed, when produced sin- 

 gly, to be piercing and harsh. It consists of two notes, and 

 has (not unaptly) been compared to the discordant union of 

 the modulation of the Cuckoo, with the scream of the Gull, 

 or the sound of the clarionet in the hand of a beginner. 

 Some, however, still assert, that when on the wing in large 

 flocks, or resting on the water, their united cries, becoming 

 softened by distance, are not unpleasant to the ear. This I 

 can readily believe, for, under such circumstances, I have 

 even found the incongruous mixture of sound from Gulls, 

 Guillemots, and other tribes of sea fowl (when collected 

 about their breeding stations) mixed with the whistling of 

 the breeze, and the murmurs of the intervening water, to 

 reach the ear not very dissimilar to that of a band of martial 

 music ; and I have before observed, in the account of the 

 Brent Goose, that the tumultuous cackling of those birds 



See PENNANT'S description of the Tame Swan in his " British Zoolo- 

 gy," where he has treated the subject with the classical knowledge and 

 taste for which he was conspicuous, and traced the source from whence this 

 fable appears to have originated. 



