Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 1 8 1 



For Cycnus loved unhappy Phaeton 

 And fung his lofs in poplar groves alone, 

 Beneath the filler ihades to foothe his grief 

 Heaven heard his fong and haftened his relief ; 

 And changed to fnowy plumes his hoary hair, 

 And winged his flight to chant aloft in air." 1 



More than one of Virgil's fimiles of fwans 

 attacked by eagles may have been in the mind of 

 Sir E. Landfeer, when he painted his picture of 

 this fubject, which fome fifteen years ago was the 

 ornament of the Royal Academy. 



" So, twice fix fwans in line exulting fee, 

 Whom Jove's bird fwooping from the upper fkies 

 Has fcattered, now the band or gains kind earth, 

 Or looks down on it as though gained." 2 



And again : 



"As when Jove's thunderbearer's crooked claws 

 Seizing on hare, or fwan with whiteft breaft, 

 Bears it aloft." 3 



And once more : 



" Bathed in red evening fkies, Jove's tawny bird 

 Was hunting more-birds and the clanging crowd 

 Of hurrying fwans, when fudden downward fhot 

 He fmites a goodly fwan into the waves 

 And bears it off, bold thief with crooked legs." 4 



And he fpecially fpeaks of the plain near Mantua: 



"Where feed the mow-white fwans on graffy flopes." 5 



Another water-bird is introduced in the ".flineid," 

 iv. 253, which at firft fight, from its fplafhing 

 dive, might refemble the ofprey, of which a few 

 fpecimens may yet be feen in Roff-fhire ; but the 



1 Dryden, "^En.," x. 189. 2 Ibid., i. 392. 



3 Ibid.) ix. 562. 4 Ibid., xii. 247. 



5 "Georg.,"ii. 199. 



