MUTE SWAN. 477 



see the birds. Its favourite resorts are large sheets of water, where it can 

 find islands covered with brushwood or surrounded by reeds, on which 

 it can breed secure from molestation. In winter it is more often found 

 on the sea-shore, especially in the estuaries of rivers and in quiet secluded 

 bays. 



The Swan feeds principally upon aquatic plants, but also eats water- 

 insects of all kinds, mollusks, and occasionally frogs. 



The Swan is a very powerful bird, and well able to defend himself from 

 any enemy that may attack him. Instances are recorded of men having had 

 their legs or arms broken by a blow from the wing of a Swan, but, if 

 true, it must have been under very exceptional circumstances. Natural 

 selection does not appear ever to have been required to assist the survival 

 of the Swan by protective coloration. Wherever a Swan is to be seen it 

 is always the most conspicuous object in the landscape. On the lagoons 

 of the Danube I have sometimes for a moment mistaken a flock of Swans 

 for a patch of snow lying under the bank. It is a fine sight to see them 

 get up one by one, and cross the bows of the boat in a long line, as they 

 cross over to the other side of the lagoon. They fly like Herons, with their 

 long wings stretched out, and the swish, swish of their wings quite startles 

 the listener at first, and is distinctly audible when the flock must be a 

 mile off. Unlike the Heron, however, the Swan flies with his long neck 

 stretched out at full length, like a Goose or a Duck. Although the Swan 

 fears no winged enemy, and is safe on the water from the attacks of quad- 

 rupeds, it has learnt, like all large birds, to be very distrustful of man. It 

 is almost impossible to get within range of a Swan, except by lying in wait 

 for a chance shot. The tameness of the domestic Swan allows many traits 

 in its character to be noticed which are very difficult to be observed in the 

 wild bird. The graceful way in which it arches its neck and puffs out its 

 scapulars and innermost secondaries, the ease with which it swims or floats 

 on the water with one leg tucked up behind the wing, and its occasional 

 habit of swimming with one or two of its young nestled in the hollow of 

 its back, are all well known. 



Swans probably seldom breed until they are two years old or more. In 

 the valley of the Lower Danube I have seen large flocks of Swans con- 

 sisting of several hundred birds during the first half of June ; at the same 

 time pairs of Swans were to be found in the more retired parts of the 

 flooded country. 



The nests of the wild Swan which Mr. Benson showed me in the Thier- 

 garten near Copenhagen were large structures, four or five feet across and 

 at least a couple of feet high, composed of old reeds, dead grass, and other 

 herbage. The nests are built in the shallow water in the lakes on the 

 domain, and the same nest is repaired year after year. Four pairs, pre- 

 sumably the same birds, for the Swan is said to pair for life, arrive every 



