AQUATIC FOWLS. 



233 



"Having written to Mr. Colt, a few days 

 since, for information on this subject, I have 

 just received at this moment the following re- 



Pty : 



" ' PATERSON, Dec. \st, 1849. 



" ' DEAR SIR You ask me what success I 

 have had with my swans. I got them from 

 France four years ago last spring. The first 

 year they did not lay. I suppose they were 

 young ones. The second year I had two eggs, 

 which did not hatch. The third year I had 

 five eggs, four of them hatched out in thirty- 

 nine days. The fourth year I had six eggs, all 

 of which hatched out on the third of June, also 

 in thirty-nine days. The swan lays an egg ev- 

 ery other day, and begins to lay here toward 

 the end of April. I have lost two young ones ; 

 but on examination could not discover any cause 

 for death. 



" ' Swans must have an abundance of clean 

 water to swim in. I feed mine with Indian 

 corn, rye, oats, and buckwheat, put at the edge 

 of the pond, close to the water, as they like to 

 wash down their food as they partake of it. 

 When the cygnets are young, I give them In- 

 dian meal, mixed with water, and boiled pota- 

 toes broken up. I throw into the water some 

 clover, green leaves of Indian corn, lettuce, cab- 

 bage, spinach, besides the corn and oats, etc. 

 They also come out and eat grass like geese. 

 In fact, they may be fed as you would a favorite 

 goose, and with a fresh, clear pond of water, 

 you will succeed. 



" Truly yours, R. L. COLT.' " 



A lake of half an acre in extent is quite suf- 

 ficient not only to maintain a pair of swans, but 

 to supply an acceptable lot of cygnets in the 

 fall ; but in confined waters they require a lib- 

 eral supply of food in the autumn, when the 

 weeds run short. It should be remembered 

 that, at this season, they have to supply them- 

 selves with a new suit of feathers, as well as to 

 maintain their daily strength. If they have 

 been taught to eat corn, and have not acquired 

 a notion of grazing, they perish from starvation 

 as undoubtedly as a canary bird neglected in its 

 cage. Young birds are apt to be fanciful or 

 stupid, and have not sense enough to come to 



the bank and eat grass, or pick up the thrashed 

 corn that may be thrown down to them. Some- 

 times they may be tempted with a lock of un- 

 thrashed barley or oats thrown, straw and all. 

 into the water, which they will instinctively lay 

 hold of and devour. Swans have been kept on 

 a much more limited space successfully. 



The cygnets, when first hatched, are of a 

 slaty -gray, inclining to mouse color. The time 

 of incubation is about six weeks or thereabouts. 



The happy parents will charge themselves 

 with entire maintenance of their tender young, 

 if they have but the range of a large extent of 

 river banks and shallow water ; will lead them 

 up to the quiet ditches, point out the juicy blade, 

 the floating seed, the struggling insect, the sin- 

 uous worm; will then steer to shoals left by 

 some circling eddy, and stirring up the soft sed- 

 iment with their broad feet, show that minute 

 but nutritious particles may thence be extract- 

 ed. As hunger is satisfied, and weariness comes 

 on, the mother will sink in the stream till her 

 back becomes an easy landing-place, and the 

 nurslings are thus transferred, in a secure and 

 downy cradle, to fresh feeding-places. 



But in a restricted beat they must not be left 

 altogether to themselves. A gently-sloping bank 

 will enable them to repair at pleasure to the 

 grassy margin. The old ones must have plenty 

 of corn, which they will by-and-by teach their 

 young to eat ; tender vegetables from the kitch- 

 en garden, such as endive, lettuce, or cress, will 

 help to sustain them, besides attracting the soft- 

 bodied creatures that are of all food the most 

 needful. Pollard frequently scattered on the 

 surface of the pond will be of material assist- 

 ance ; and whatever it is found that they will 

 eat, let them have in the greatest abundance. 

 Their growth is rapid ; their weight should be 

 considerable, but with little time to acquire it 

 in. The period can not be extended much 

 longer than from June to the end of November. 

 By Christmas they must all either be eaten or 

 have migrated, when the parents will begin to 

 direct their thoughts forward to a succeeding 

 family. Confined swans sometimes get a sort 

 of quid of mud, fibres, and gravel under their 

 chins, which it is as well now and then to ex- 

 amine and clean out. 



