Swan. NATATORES. CYGNUS. 281 
bitants of which the down and feathers are of great value, 
not only for domestic comfort, but as an article of barter, 
they are hunted down and killed in great numbers in the 
month of August, at which time the old birds are unable to 
fly, from having cast their quill-feathers. At this season the 
natives assemble in bodies, in the places where Swans are 
most abundant, attended by dogs, and mounted upon small 
but active horses, purposely trained to pass over bogs and 
through marshy soil; the chase then commences, and many 
are ridden down; but the greater number are caught by the 
dogs, which always seize by the neck, a mode of attack that 
causes the bird to lose its balance and become an easy prey. 
The fabulous account of the sweet singing of the Swan be- 
fore death, which gave rise to so much beautiful allusion in 
the writings of the ancient poets, is now universally explod- 
ed *; and the voice of the present species (oftener heard than 
that of any other) is generally allowed, when produced sin- 
gly, to be piercing and harsh. It consists of two notes, and 
has (not unaptly) been compared to the discordant union of 
the modulation of the Cuckoo, with the scream of the Gull, 
or the sound of the clarionet in the hand of a beginner. 
Some, however, still assert, that when on the wing in large 
flocks, or resting on the water, their united cries, becoming 
softened by distance, are not unpleasant to the ear. This I 
can readily believe, for, under such circumstances, I have 
even found the incongruous mixture of sound from Gulls, 
Guillemots, and other tribes of sea fowl (when collected 
about their breeding stations) mixed with the whistling of 
the breeze, and the murmurs of the intervening water, to 
reach the ear not very dissimilar to that of a band of martial 
music; and I have before observed, in the account of the 
Brent Goose, that the tumultuous cackling of those birds 
* See Pennant’s description of the Tame Swan in his “ British Zoolo- 
gy,” where he has treated the subject with the classical knowledge and 
taste for which he was conspicuous, and traced the source from whence this 
fable appears to have originated, 
