WHISTLING AND MUTE SWAN. ^ 54jt 



Galling : its found is, whoogh, whoo^hyV^ry loud and fiirill, but not dif- 

 agreeable, when heard far above one's head,- and n:iodulated by the 

 winds. The natives of Iceland compare it to the ndtf-^ of a violin : 

 in fa(St they hear it at the end of their long and gloomy winter, '*^he|i 

 the return of the Swans announces the return of fummer: every 

 note muft be therefore melodious which prefages the fpeedy thaWj , 

 and the releafe from their tedious confinement. 



It is from this fpecies alone that the antients have given the fable Vocal Swan o^ 

 of the Swan being endued with the powers of melody : embracing ^"^ ozn. 

 the Pythagorean dodtrine, they made the body of this bird the manfion 

 of the fouls of departed poets : and after that, attributed to the birds • 

 the fame faculty of harmony which their inmates poffeffed in a pre- 

 Gxiftent ftate. The vulgar, not diftinguifhing between fweetnefs of 

 numbers and melody of voice, thought that real which was only in- 

 tended figuratively. The Mute Swan never frequents the Padus} 

 and I am almoft equally certain that it never is feen on the Cayfter., 

 in Lydia j each of them ftreams celebrated by the poets, for the great 

 refort of Swans. The Padus was ftyled Oloriferus, from the numbers 

 which frequented its waters ; and there are few of the poets, Greek 

 or Latin, who do not truly make them its inhabitants. I fhall give 

 one reference onlyj.:out of refpeft to the extreme beauty of ths 

 imagery o,. . ■ 



Haud fecus Eridatu ftagnts ripave Cayftri 

 Innatat albus Olor, pronoque immobile corpus 

 Dat fluvio : & pedibus tacitis emigrat in undas. 



_^ Silius Ittilku},\ih. 14.. 



Tame Swan, Br. Zool. ii. N» 265.-— Anfer Cygnns, N" 107. ^.—LathamyiiL 470. Mute Swan. 



— ^^Lev. Mus. 



With a deep red bill, and black incurvated nail at the end : a 

 triangular naked black fkin between the bill and the eyes : 

 at the bafe of the upper mandible a large black rounded protube- 

 rance: 



