FAMILY L AMELLIROSTRATA. PLAITED-BILLED. 



97 



is about four feet and a half in length from the tip of the beak to that of 

 the tail ; over the root of the upper mandible is a black callous protube- 

 rance, whence Bechstein has called it the Tuberculated Swan (C. Gibbus). 

 The female is not quite so large, and has the frontal protuberance less than 

 the male. They have become domesticated, and in our own country are 

 commonly seen in private grounds where there is much water, to which 

 they are great ornaments, no bird having command of such beautiful 



attitudes. 



" The Swan, with arched neck 

 Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows 

 Her state with oary feet." 



Formerly they were highly esteemed in England, and it was ordered by 

 an Act of Edward IV. c. 6, that no one who possessed a freehold of less 

 clear yearly value than five marks should be permitted to keep any, other 

 than the son of our Sovereign Lord the King. And subsequently by an Act 

 of the llth of Henry VIII. c. 17, the taking of Swans' eggs was punished 

 by imprisonment for a year and a day, and a fine at the king's pleasure. It 

 is still felony to steal the eggs, but it is necessary in order to make the felony 

 that the bird should have been marked on the beak with a red-hot iron ; 

 these marks (of which in an old manuscript at Oxford as many as 304 are 

 enumerated belonging to various families) are different, that of the king 

 consisting of three vertical nicks. From this circumstance originated the 

 f-ustom of Swan-hopping, or Svxm-upping as it is called, according to the 

 Rev. Mr. Weston, in the " Archaaologia," xvi. 163, from the City of 

 London Companies going up the river Thames to brand their Swans. Mr. 

 Weston's opinion of the sign of the Swan with two necks having originally 

 been that of " the Swan with two nicks" may be noticed, en passant, as 

 explaining one of the numerous popular misnomers which have produced so 

 many curious and absurd sign-paintings. 



The Swan, though inoffensive when not meddled with, is very pugnacious 

 when disturbed ; striking so violently with its wings, as to do material 

 mischief to any one who is so foolish as to provoke it when in the water. 

 Amongst their own species two males will frequently fight for a female, 

 and the contest does not terminate without the destruction of one of them. 

 The nests of Swans are built upon the ground, on the retired banks of 

 lakes or rivers, and are formed of dried leaves or rushes. The birds begin 

 to lay in February, and continue to do so every other day till they have laid 

 six or seven eggs : the time of setting is about six weeks, the female alone 

 remaining on the nest, and when she leaves it carefully covering up the 

 e ggs w jth feathers and rashes ; during this time the male constantly tends 

 and protects her from injury. During the season of incubation they are 

 extremely dangerous, and very courageous. Dr. Latham mentions an in- 

 teresting anecdote on this subject : " At Pewsy in Buckinghamshire, whilst 

 a Swan was on the nest she observed a Fox swimming towards her from 

 the opposite shore, when she darted into the water, and having kept the 

 1-V.x at bay for a considerable time with her wings, at last succeeded in 

 drowning him in the sight of several spectators." The Cygnets are able to 

 walk in the next November ; and when they begin to swim, it is said that 

 the male parent holds them up by the head, and the female by the tail ; 

 but when they have acquired this accomplishment, the parents desert them, 

 ami they find mates amongst themselves. 



The Wild Swan (C. Ferus), which was formerly called the Elk, Hooper, 

 or Whistling Swan, differs from the Tame Swan in having the beak black, 

 with the edges and root and the skin between the eyes and the irides 

 yellow ; the neck straight; the plumage white with a yellowish tinge, and 

 the bastard wing armed with a curved horny spur, which, however, is not 

 seen till the feathers are plucked ; legs black. But the great distinction 

 consists in the windpipe ; in this bird it is coiled up in the keel of the breast 

 bono which is very deep, whilst in that of the Tame Swan it is straight, 

 and the keel of the breast bone narrow. 



It is to this species that the ancients imputed the melodious note which 

 h:i^ become proverbial (C. Musicus), Plate 19 ; but this is none other than 

 u iioetical fiction, originating in the Swan having been sacred to Apollo and 

 the Muses, and thence supposed to be musical. The song, such as it is, of 



the Swan may be noted, according to M. Mongez, by mi fa and re mi, 

 upon the latter of which they rest for a long tune ; these cries are uttered 

 morning and evening, and whenever the bird is particularly excited. 



Swans are very good swimmers, and move so fast in the water that a 

 person walking at a smart pace cannot keep up with them ; and they have 

 equal powers of flight, during which the motion of their wings produces a 

 loud sonorous noise, which may be heard at a great distance, and which 

 is considered by Sonnini to have given origin to the notion that Swans 

 sing. 



ANSER Goose. Some of the species of this genus so closely approxi- 

 mate to the Swans, that the difference cannot easily be distinguished. 

 There are several species, including the Snow Goose (A. Hyperboreus) of 

 North America ; the Grey-lay Goose (A. Cinereus), the origin of the tame 

 Goose, now rare in the British Isles ; the White-fronted Goose (A. Albifrons), 

 which visits us in winter ; the Bean Goose, which breeds in Ireland ; the 

 Canada Goose (Anser Canadensis) ; the Egyptian Goose, and the Bernide 

 Goose. The Wild Goose is figured on Plate 19. The genus is so well known 

 as not to require a lengthened description. 



CEREOPSIS. The type of this genus is the bird (C. Nova HoUandiai), 

 figured on Plate 19. It is a beautiful bird : it possesses all the characteristics 

 which separate the Geese from the Ducks, and is about the size of a com- 

 mon Goose ; it is of a dingy gray colour, and has a broad patch of white 

 on the top of its head ; most of the wing-coverts are marked with round 

 dusky spots ; the naked part of the bill, which is very short, is black ; the 

 broadly-expanded cere is a light straw or lemon colour ; irides hazel ; legs 

 orange. 



The New Holland Pigeon Goose frequents grassy districts and the shore, 

 but rarely enters the water. It is easily domesticated. 



ANAS Duck. Ducks very much resemble Geese in their general con- 

 formation and many of their habits. The divisions of this genus are : the 

 Scoters, the Garrots, the Eiders, the Pochards, the Shovellers, the Shield- 

 rakes, and the Mergansers. The Shoveller (A. Clypeata the Ryncaspis of 

 Leach) is about twenty inches in length, and is a very beautiful bird. The 

 upper mandible of its long beak forms a perfect half cylinder, widened at 

 the end, and is of a leaden-grey colour ; head and neck green ; eyes yellow ; 

 breast white ; flanks rufous ; back brown ; wings varied with white, ash- 

 grey, and brown. It is a native of the northern regions, and being a bird 

 of passage visits this country in the spring. Its flesh is so excellent that 

 many consider it superior to that of the Wild Duck. (Plate 19.) 



HYDEOBATES. The species, figured on Plate 19, is the Lobated Duck 

 (H. Lobatus), and exhibits the general characteristics and habits of the Duck 

 tribe, so well known. 



MERGTJS Goosander (M. Merganser). This bird is about two feet four 

 inches long, and three feet two inches wide ; the head and upper part of 

 the back black ; the lower part of the neck, chest, belly, wing-coverts, and 

 outer scapulars, white tinged with yellowish-rose colour ; the inner scapulars 

 and upper part of the back black, the lower part and tail ash ; primaries 

 black, great coverts edged with black; beak deep red, its hooked ex- 

 tremity black ; iris reddish-brown or red ; legs deep orange ; the male has 

 also a short, large, black tuft on the back of the head. The female is 

 known commonly as the Dun Diver, or Sparling Fowl. 



The Goosanders bear great resemblance to the Geese, from which, how- 

 ever, they are distinguished by the narrowness and hooking of the bill ; 

 they live upon the water, and swim with their bodies deeply sunk and 

 their heads only above the surface ; they dive and swim under water with 

 great ease, and employ their wings as oars; their gait- is unsteady on 

 account of their legs being set so far back, but they fly with great quick- 

 ness and for a long time. They feed on fish and amphibious animals. 

 They live in the cold regions, and are noticed in the more temperate climes 

 only during winter, when they appear in great numbers. They moult only 

 once a year, the old males in autumn, and the females in spring : the young 

 males before their first or second moult resemble the females. 



