128 BLACK SWANS SWAN HOPPING. 



believe the number bred or remaining is very small. 

 They are said to degenerate here as to size, yet the 

 imported individuals, it seems, were not larger than 

 our indigenous breed. There is said by naturalists, 

 to be some disparity between the wild and tame black 

 swan, in respect to the bill and organization of the 

 bones. Thence, probably, they form different species 

 of the same genus. 



Swans wandering by night, in search of water- 

 cresses chiefly, are always in danger from the different 

 vermin which prey upon poultry and game weasels, 

 stoats, pole-cats, &c. And swans thus destroyed, 

 exhibit no wounds or marks upon the body, but upon 

 the head and neck, where, on a minute inspection, the 

 wounds are discovered through which the vermin have 

 sucked the life-blood, leaving the bulk so little affected 

 that the feathers are unruffled. The wounds given 

 by the sharp and long teeth of the vermin, appear 

 scarcely the size of a pin's head, but are generally 

 above half an inch deep. Geese and turkeys are also 

 liable to be destroyed by these nocturnal marauders, 

 which, like all beasts of prey, sleep throughout the 

 day. Our readers, generally, have heard of the Royal 

 Swan hopping or dancing annually, in August, up the 

 Thames, as far as Oxford, the ancient bounds, by the 

 Lord Mayor of London and his attendants, the ap- 

 pointed conservators of the royal birds. Particular 

 officers are appointed, and their deputies chosen, by 

 whom the birds are marked on the bill, with a num- 

 ber of cross bars, formed in a diamond shape. Ac- 

 cording to the established regulation, when too many 



