174 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



Mr. Yarrell for the knowledge of another miportant 

 modification in the form of trachea, which occurs in the 

 Black Swan of New Holland, described and figured at 

 page 45. In that species the organ in question is of 

 an intermediate form between the Tame Swan and the 

 Hooper, describing a curve of considerable extent, but 

 not passing into any cavity in the sternum previously 

 to entering that of the chest. 



Aldrovandus, who was the first to observe the striking 

 inflections of the windpipe in the Wild Swan, but with- 

 out being aware of the difference in that respect between 

 it and the Tame, regarded this peculiar structure as a 

 confirmation of the old opinion, that the Swan pos- 

 sessed a melodious voice with which, on the approach 

 of death, it performed its own funereal dirge. This 

 story, as far as regards the harmony of its voice, has 

 frequently been revived ; but those who have had the 

 best opportunities of hearing the monotonous sounds 

 which the Wild Swans actually produce, are univer- 

 sally agreed in discrediting it as an altogether imaginary 

 fable. We have ourselves frequently listened to them 

 in the Gardens of the Society on fine evenings in the 

 summer time, and could not but agree with Hearne in 

 regarding the noise which they made as " not very 

 unlike that of a French horn, but entirely divested of 

 every note that constitutes melody." M. de Bomare 

 compares it, with equal felicity, to the sound of two 

 small children's trumpets, and declares that if any 

 modern writer pretends that the Swan has a melodious 

 voice, he deserves to be compared with the blind man 

 of Cheselden, who had no other idea of the colour of 

 scarlet than that which was suggested by the sound of 

 a trumpet. 



In habits the Wild Swan bears a close resemblance 

 to the Tame. It flies with so much rapidity, especially 



