572 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



is very soft and low, with a somewhat pleasing melancholy tone about it ; but it is not mute, as 

 the name would imply. The cygnets when hatched and for a good while after are grey, and may 

 often be seen on the back of one of the parents when swimming in the water. The flesh is 

 excellent when moderately young, and was formerly highly esteemed ; it would probably be so 

 still but for its rarity. 



This swan flies very rapidly. Mr. Lloyd writes on this point : " The swan, when migrating, 

 with a moderate wind in its favour, and mounted high in the air, travels at the rate of one hundred 

 miles or more an hour. I have often timed the flight of the goose, and found one mile a minute 

 a common rapidity ; and when the two birds, in a change of feeding ground, have been flying near 

 each other, the swan invariably passed with nearly double the velocity." 



There is another large white swan very closely resembling Cygnus olor, which has been 

 considered indeed identical with it, and which is frequently imported from the Baltic, called by the 

 dealers the Polish Swan. Mr. Yarrell, however, considers it distinct, the cranium being different, 

 and the young especially never hatching grey, like cygnets of the Mute Swan, but being white from 

 the very shell. From this last characteristic he has given it the name of Cygnus imnmtabilis. 



THE WHISTLING SWAN is called by naturalists Cygnus musicus; and certainly the name of 

 Musical Swan would be far more appropriate. The bill wants the protuberance of the preceding 

 species, and is yellow ; it is also somewhat smaller, and the neck is considerably shorter and thicker 

 in comparison than that of the Mute Swan. It is only a winter visitor to England in the wild 

 state, but has several times been kept in confinement ; and its beautiful voice is alone enough to 

 make its thorough domestication worth a little trouble. This feature has been described by many 

 naturalists and other observers. Olaf says, " When a company of these birds passes through the 

 air, their song is truly delightful, equal to the notes of a violin." Faber says, "Their tuneful, 

 melancholy voices sound like trumpets heard at a distance." Another authority tells us that "the 

 voice of a Singing Swan has a more silvery tone than that of any other creature;" and Schilling 

 writes : " Sometimes the notes would resemble the sound of a bell, sometimes that of some wind 

 instrument ; still it was not exactly like either of them, just as a living voice cannot be imitated by 

 dead metal. This peculiar concert realised in my mind the truth of what I had heard concerning 

 the song of the swan, which I had before regarded as a poetical fiction." The notes of this swan, 

 it is true, are given forth at all times ; but it is not unlikely that when wounded or in distress they 

 might be even louder and more prolonged than usual, and thus give rise to the beautiful legend 

 of the sweet song of the dying bird. 



BEWICK'S SWAN is a still smaller white bird. The neck is very slender, but not long. It 

 is said to be shy and timid in captivity, and we believe has never bred in such circumstances ; it is, 

 indeed, very difficult to obtain any of the rarer swans in pairs, the specimens captured being 

 generally odd birds which have been wounded. 



THE BLACK SWAN is the best known next to the Mute Swan, having been imported 

 from Australia many years back. The eyes are scarlet, the legs black, the bill red tipped with 

 white ; the plumage a rather sooty black, shading on the edges of many feathers into a very dark 

 grey. In the long and slender neck, and general outline, it resembles the Mute Swan, but it is not 

 quite so large. 



The Black Swan breeds freely — quite as freely as the Mute Swan — and the young are very 

 hardy. These swans are now established favourites on our ornamental waters and in the Zoological 



