232 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



L 



THE WHITE Btt'AN. 



These birds are sagacious and wary, and de- 

 pend more on sight than on the sense of 

 smell. 



It is doubtful whether the swan could be kept 

 through the winter north of New York. Our 

 winters are too severe for them, and it is neces- 

 sary for them to have water to resort to, suffi- 

 cient for them to swim in, in winter. Mr. Pren- 

 tice, of Albany, imported a pair from England, 

 a few years since, and placed them in artificial 

 ponds supplied from springs, but they did not 

 do well, and finally died. 



Our readers will probably remember to have 

 seen, a few years ago, a pair of these splendid 

 birds sporting in the basin of the Bowling Green, 

 at the foot of Broadway, New York. When 

 we saw them, they had not recovered from their 

 confinement in cages, and looked rather rough ; 

 still they added much to the beauty of the 

 scene. 



A very interesting account of "a weather- 

 wise swan," we find in an English paper, which 

 we transcribe: "This swan, the property of 

 Lord Braybrooke, which was eighteen or nine- 

 teen years old, had brought up many broods, 

 and was highly valued by the neighbors. She 



exhibited, some eight or nine days past, one of 

 the most remarkable instances of the power of 

 instinct ever recorded. She was sitting on four 

 or five eggs, and was observed to be very busy 

 in collecting weeds, grass, etc., to raise her nest. 

 A farming man was ordered to take down half 

 a load of haulm, with which she most indus- 

 triously raised her nest and the eggs two feet 

 and a half. That very night there came down 

 a tremendous fall of rain, which flooded all the 

 malt shops and did great damage. Man made 

 no preparation the bird did. Instinct prevail- 

 ed over reason her eggs were above, and only 

 just above the water." 



In the Appendix to Brown's " Poultry- Yard," 

 we find the following, communicated by the 

 late Samuel Allen: "It has been said that the 

 common swan will not breed in this country, in 

 consequence of the variableness of our climate. 

 But this is an error, probably founded on igno- 

 rance of their habits, and the mode of their 

 propagation; for they have been successfully 

 bred for a few years past by Mr. Roswell L. 

 Colt, of Paterson, New Jersey, who has, by-the- 

 by, a fine pond and every other accommodation 

 necessary for rearing them. 



