THE SWAN. 81 



coloured, and are some months before they acquire that deli- 

 cate whiteness for which this magnificent bird is so much 

 admired. 



Dr. Latham says, he knows two females that for three or four 

 years past have agreed to associate ; and have had each a brood 

 annually, bringing up together about eleven cygnets. They sit 

 by turns, and never evince any disposition to quarrel. The same 

 writer relates a singular instance of the strength of one of these 

 creatures, exerted in self-defence. " A female at Pensip in 

 Buckinghamshire, 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 him at bay for a con- 

 siderable time, with her wings, at last succeeded in drowning 

 him : after which, in the sight of several persons, she returned 

 in triumph." 



Notwithstanding the elegance of the swan when in the water, 

 it makes only an indifferent figure upon land ; for its gait is 

 heavy and waddling, and its attitudes and motions are as inele- 

 gant in walking as they are graceful in swimming. 



All the stages of this bird's approach to maturity are slow, 

 and seem indicative of its longevity. It is two months in hatch- 

 ing, several months in acquiring its colour, and a whole year 

 in growing to its full size. Willoughby seems to think the swan 

 may live three hundred years ; and although this appears very 

 doubtful if not absolutely incredible, it is universally allowed that 

 it reaches the age of a hundred. 



The swan is considered as one of the principal ornaments of 

 artificial pieces of water ; and formerly, in England, no one was 

 suffered to keep them unless his annual income amounted to five 

 marks. It is not surprising that a bird so remarked and esteem- 

 ed for the majestic elegance of its appearance, should have been 

 frequently introduced into poetry, and sometimes given birth to 

 fiction. It is, however, difficult to account for the fabulous narra- 

 tives and high-strained similies of the ancients relative to the 

 musical powers of this bird, since experience shows that the 

 tame swan is mute, and that the notes of the wild one are ex- 

 ceedingly harsh and dissonant. It appears that some mytholog- 

 ical meaning was concealed in what they have said relating to 

 the melody of the swan, and especially in regard to its dying 

 song, since we cannot suppose that either its voice or its nature 

 has undergone any change. 



The revolutions of manners, however, have inverted tastes as 

 well as ideas ; and the swan, which among the ancients wab 

 esteemed a most delicious viand, is in this age seldom brought 

 to table, except for the display of ostentatious magnificence ; 



