TRUMPETER SWAN. 541 
of different vegetables, leaves, seeds, various aquatic insects, land 
snails, small reptiles and quadrupeds. The flesh of a cygnet is pretty 
good eating, but that of an old bird is dry and tough. 
I kept a male alive upwards of two years, while I was residing at 
Henderson in Kentucky. It had been slightly wounded in the tip of 
the wing, and was caught after a long pursuit in a pond from which it 
could not escape. Its size, weight, and strength rendered the task of 
carrying it nearly two miles by no means easy; but as I knew that it 
would please my wife and my then very young children, I persevered. 
Cutting off the tip of the wounded wing, I turned it loose in the 
garden. Although at first extremely shy, it gradually became accus- 
tomed to the servants, who fed it abundantly, and at length proved so 
gentle as to come to my wife’s call, to receive bread from her hand. 
‘¢ Trumpeter,” as we named our bird, in accordance with the gene- 
ral practice of those who were in the habit of shooting this species, 
now assumed a character which until then had been unexpected, and 
laying aside his timidity became so bold at times as to give chase to 
. my favourite Wild Turkey Cock, my dogs, children, and servants. 
Whenever the gates of our yard happened to be opened, he would at 
once make for the Ohio, and it was not without difficulty that he was 
driven home again. On one occasion, he was absent a whole night, 
and I thought he had fairly left us; but intimation came of his having 
travelled to a pond not far distant. Accompanied by my miller and six 
or seven of my servants, I betook myself to the pond, and there saw 
our Swan swimming buoyantly about as if in defiance of us all. It was 
not without a great deal of trouble that we at length succeeded in 
driving it ashore. Pet birds, good Reader, no matter of what species 
they are, seldom pass their lives in accordance with the wishes of their 
possessors ; in the course of a dark and rainy night, one of the servants 
having left the gate open, Trumpeter made his escape, and was never 
again heard of. 
With the manners of this species during the breeding season, its 
mode of constructing its nest, the number of its eggs, and the appear- 
ance of its young, I am utterly unacquainted. The young bird repre- 
sented in the plate was shot near New Orleans, on the 16th of Decem- 
ber 1822. A figure of the adult male you will find in Plate CCCCVI ; 
and should I ever have opportunities of studying the habits of this 
noble bird, believe me I shall have much pleasure in laying before you 
