AVES— SWAN. 



665 



served for their beauty. Many may be seen on the Thames, where they are 

 esteemed royal property, and it is accounted felony to steal their eggs. On 

 this river, as far as the conservancy of it belongs to the city of London, they 

 are under the care of the corporation ; and at certain times the lord mayor, 

 aldermen, &;c. proceed up the Thames, to what is commonly called the swan 

 hopping, to mark the young birds. The swan is a long-lived bird, and 

 sometimes attains the age of more than a hundred years. 



THE WILD OR WHISTLING SWAN,i 



Though so strongly resembling the tame swan in color and form, is yet a 

 different bird; for it is very differently formed within. The wild swan is 

 less than the tame, almost a fourth ; for as the one weighs twenty pounds, 

 the other only weighs sixteen pounds and three quarters. The color of the 

 tame swan is all over white; that of the wild bird is along the back and the 

 tips of the wings of an ash color; the tame swan is mute, the wild one has a 

 sharp loud cry, particularly while flying. But these are slight differences, com- 

 pared to what are found upon dissection. The wild species is found in most 

 of the northern regions, in America, and probably in the East Indies. 



THE BLACK SWAN. 



New Holland, that country of animal wonders, presents us with a bird 

 which the ancients imagined could not possibly have existence. The black 



' Anas cygnvs, Lin. 



84 



56=* 



