358 THE TAME, OR MUTE SWAN. 



passing nimbly over the boggy soil and marches. The Swans are 

 able to run as fast as a tolerably fleet horse. The greater number 

 are caught by the dogs, which are taught to seize them by the neck 

 a mode of attack that causes them to lose their balance, and become 

 an easy prey. 



Notwithstanding their size, these birds are so extremely swift on the 



wing, when in full feather, as to 

 make them more difficult to be shot 

 than almost any others ; it being fre- 

 quently necessary to aim ten or 

 twelve feet before their bills. This, 

 however, is only when they are 

 flying before the wind in a brisk 

 gale ; at which time they seldom 

 proceed at the rate of less than a 

 hundred miles an hour: but when 



ovt.-v.i. /-I i i 



flying across the wind or against it, 

 they are not able to make any great progress. 



The present species has several marks of distinction from that called 

 by us the Tame Swan : but the most remarkable one is the strange 

 form of the windpipe ; which falls into the chest, then turns back like 

 a trumpet, and afterwards makes a second bend to join the lungs. 

 By this curious construction the bird is enabled to utter a loud and 

 shrill note. The tame Swan on the contrary, is the most silent of all 

 the feathered tribes ; it can do nothing more than hiss, which it does 

 on receiving any provocation. The vocal Swan emits its loud notes 

 only when flying, or calling : the sound is whoogh, whoogh, very loud 

 and shrill, but not disagreeable when heard high in the air and mod- 

 ulated by the winds. The Icelanders compare it to the notes of the 

 violin ; they hear it at the end of their long and gloomy winter, when 

 the return of the Swans announces also the return of summer ; every 

 note, therefore, must to them be melodious, which presages a speedy 

 thaw, and a release from their tedious confinement. 



THE TAME, OR MUTE SWAN. 



Nothing can exceed the beauty and elegance with which the Swan 

 rows itself along in the water, throwing itself into the proudest 

 attitudes imaginable before the spectators ; and there is not perhaps in 

 all nature a more lively or striking image of dignity and grace. 



This bird is able to swim faster than a man can walk. The Swan 

 ig very strong, and at times extremely fierce : and this bird has not 

 nnfrequently been known to throw down and trample upon youths of 

 fifteen or sixteen years of age ; and an old Swan, we are told, is able to 

 break the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing. A female, 

 while in the act of sitting, observed a Fox swimming towards her from 

 the opposite shore : she instantly darted into the water, and having 

 kept it at bay for a considerable time with her wings, at last succeeded 

 in drowning him ; after which, in the sight of several persons, sho 



