LECTURE VI. 241 



took leave of life with a sweetly-mournful song or 

 dirge. So strongly was this idea impressed on tin 

 minds of the ancients, that the Swan became tin 

 syinliol of | )<>< try , Imt ' it really is, it seems 



to have had its excuse, and to have originated 

 from some exaggerated descriptions of the natural 

 notes of the wild Swan; the flocks of which, dur- 

 ing tlu-ir flight, have been often observed to emit 

 a sound far from un pleasing in concert, though 

 the general notes of a single bird are harsh and 

 stridulous. The tame Swan has no other voice 

 than a mere hiss : yet so common appears to Imvi 

 been the general belief of its musical pov. 

 that the celebrated Aldrovandus, in his Ornitho- 

 logy, speaks, as he imagines, from good authorit \ , 

 01 the music of the Swans upon the Thames near 

 London, which he had been well assured, were 

 very frequently heard to sing. 



Sir Thomas Brown, with his usual depth o 

 learning and solemnity of diction, endeavours in 

 his P>( -ndoduxia Epidemica, or Vulgar Errors, to 

 explode this popular notion, and concludes with 

 sentence : M When therefore we consider the* 

 dissention of authors, the falsity of relations, the 

 ^disposition of the organs, and the unmusical 



LECT. J. R 



