THE TAME SWAN. 



Cygm's Olor. 



The extensive family of Swimming Birds to which 

 these noble ornaments of our rivers and lakes belong 

 are at once characterized by their straight broad bills, 

 clothed with a continuation of the connnon epidermis 

 instead of the usual horny covering, and armed at the 

 edges with a regular series of laminated teeth. Their 

 wings are of moderate length ; their legs short ; and 

 their feet divided into four toes, the three anterior 

 united throughout by a palmated expansion, and the 

 posterior perfectly distinct from the rest. They are for 

 the most part inhabitants of fresh water rather than of 

 the sea ; and subsist more upon vegetable than animal 

 substances. 



In the Linnean system of classification the great 

 majority of these birds were referred to a single genus, 



