THE TAME SWAN. 363 



swan emits its loud notes only when flying, or calling : its sound 

 is, whooghy whoogk, very loud and shrill, but not disagreeable 

 when heard high in the air and modulated by the winds. The 

 Icelanders compare it to the notes of the violin : they hear it at 

 the end of their long and gloomy winter, when the return of the 

 swans announces also the return of summer ; every note there- 

 fore must be melodious which presages a speedy thaw, and a re- 

 lease from their tedious confinement, 



It was from this species alone that the ancients derived their 

 fable of the swan's being endowed with the powers of melody. 

 Embracing the Pythagorean doctrine, they made the body of this 

 bird the mansion of the souls of departed poets ; and then at- 

 tributed to the birds the same faculty of harmony which they 

 had thus possessed in a pre-existent state. And the vulgar, not 

 distinguishing between sweetness of numbers and melody of 

 voice, thought that real which was only intended figuratively. 

 The mute or tame swan never frequents the Pad us ; " and I am 

 almost equally certain, (says Mr. Pennant) that it never was 

 seen on the Cayster, in Lydia ; each of which are celebrated 

 by the poets for the great resort of swans. The Padus was 

 styled Oloriferus from the numbers of these birds which frequent 

 its waters ; and there are few of the poets, either Greek or Latin, 

 who do not make them its inhabitants." 



THE TAME OR MUTE SWAN. 



The mute swans are found wild in Russia and Siberia : in 

 England they are very common in a domestic state. They are 

 seen in great plenty on the Thames ; where they are esteemed 



