THE WILD SWAN. 121 



noticed in another place. The same may he said of 

 quadrupeds and insects. There are none of the former 

 peculiar to British lakes, and the latter are more 

 abundant over pools and rivulets, than on those ex- 

 panses of water, which are the fishing grounds of the 

 eagle and the osprey. Of the feathered tenants of the 

 water, those which are web-footed for swimming, and 

 have their feathers so constantly oiled as never to 

 be wet, though immersed in water, the largest, and 

 probably the rarest, is 



THE WILD SWAN. 



THE WILD SWAN, or WHISTLING SWAN, (anas cygnus 

 of Linnaeus,) is but a bird of passage in the British isles, 

 though generally a few of them breed in the northern 

 counties of Scotland, and in the Orkney and Shetland 

 islands, where their places of retreat or breeding are 

 the secluded lakes. The wild swan is a majestic bird. 

 The full-grown male measures nearly four feet in 

 length, and about seven feet in the expanse of the 

 wings. The weight, about twenty-five pounds. The 

 dimensions of the female are rather less. The body of 

 the wild swan is white, like that of the tame swan ; but 

 the head and nape are yellowish, and the wings are tipt 

 with ashen gray. The appearance of the bird, the 

 different note which it utters, and the different forma- 

 tion of the wind-pipe, upon which that note seems to , 

 depend, all point out this as a species entirely different 

 from the tame or mute swan. The note of the wild 

 swan is a deep and hoarse whistle, which, however, is 

 rather musical, though not sufficiently so to have gained 

 M 



