i 9 4 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



at the moment of the swan's death, it gives utterance 

 to a mournful song ; but this is an error, in my opinion ; 

 at least, I have tested the truth of the story on several 

 occasions." That some swans have a kind of voice, and 

 can change a note or two, no one who has met with a 

 flock or two of " hoopers," or wild swans, can deny. 



Olaus Magnus relates the fable and quotes Plato, that 

 the swan sings at its death, not from sorrow, but out of 

 joy, at finishing its life. He also gives us a graphic illus- 

 tration of how swans may be caught by playing to them 

 on a lute or other stringed instrument, and also that they 



were to be caught by men (playing music) with stalking- 

 horses, in the shape of oxen, or horses ; and, in another 

 page, he says, that not far from London, the Metropolis 

 of England, on the River Thames, may be found more 

 than a thousand domesticated swans. 



THE ALLE, ALLE. 



" There is also in this Lake (the White Lake) a kind of 

 bird, very frequent ; and in other Coasts of the Bothnick 



