W/fi HISTORY OF 



CHAP. X. 



OF THE SWAN, TAME AND WILD. • 



No bird makes a more indifferent figure upon land, or a 

 more beautiful one in the water, than the swan. When it 



* Of the characters by which the swans are distingfuished from tlie rest of 

 the famil)-, the mo5t remarkable are the extreme length of their necks ; the 

 oval shape of their nostrils, which are placed about the middle of their bill ; 

 the nakedness of their cheeks; the equal breadth of their bills throughout ; 

 the great depth of that organ at the base, whore the vertical considerably 

 exceeds the transverse diameter; and the position of their legs behind tlie 

 centre of gi'avity. They are by far the largest species of the family; and 

 there are very few birds that exceed them in magnitude. They live almost 

 cdi'stanlly upon the water, preferring the larger streams and open lakes ; 

 siiid feed chiefly uptm aquatic plants, the roots of which they are enabled to 

 reach by means of their long necks, for they rarely if ever plunge the whole 

 of their bodies beneath the surface. They also devour frogs and insects, 

 and occasionally, it is said, even fishes ; hut this last assertion is contra, 

 dieted by almost every observer who has attended particularly to their ha- 

 bits, and seems quite at variance with the fact that the fish-ponds to which 

 they are sometimes confined do not appear to suBer the smallest diminution 

 in the number of their inhabitants from the presence of these inoffensive 

 birds. In their habits they are as peaceable as they are majestic in form, 

 elegant in attitude, graceful in their motions, and, in the two species that 

 are most commonly known to us, unsiUlied in the purity of their white and 

 glossy plumage. 



Of these species that which is known, improperly with reference to a large 

 proportion of the individuals that compose it, as the tame swan, is probably 

 the most common, being found in a state of domestication throughout tlio 

 greater part of the northern hemisphere. In a wild state it is met with in 

 almost every country of Europe, especially towards the east, and is parti- 

 cularly abundant in Siberia. Its distinguishing characters are found chiefly 

 in its bill, which is throughout of an orange red, with the exception of the 

 edges of the mandibles, the slight hook at the extremity, the nostrils, and 

 the naked spaces extending from the base towards the eyes, all of which are 

 black. A large protuberance, also of a deep black, surmounts the base of 

 the bill ; the iris is brown ; and the legs black, with a tinge of red. All the 

 plumage, without exception, in the adult bird, is of the purest white. I7i 

 length the full grown male measures upwards of five feet, and more thau 

 eight in the expanse of its wings, which reach, when closed, along two 

 ihirds of the tail. Its weight is usually about twenty pounds, but it some- 

 times attains five and twenty or even thirty ; and those which inhabit tht 

 southern coast of the Caspian are said to reach, a still more enormous size. 

 The female is rather smaller than the male ; her bill is surmounted by a 

 smaller protuberance ; and her neck is somewhat more slender. When first 

 hatched the young arc of a duskv gray, with lead coloured bill and legs j is 



