138 AMERICAN SWAN. 



size and plumage, the yearling Cygnet being about one-third the mag- 

 nitude of the adult, and having feathers of a deep leaden colour. The 

 smallest Swan I have ever examined, and it was killed in my presence, 

 weighed but eight pounds. Its plumage was very deeply tinted, and 

 it had a bill of a very beautiful Jlesh-colowc, and very soft. This Cyg- 

 net, I presume, was a yearling, for I killed one myself the same day, 

 whose feathers were less dark, but whose bill was of a dirty white ; 

 and the bird weighed twelve pounds. This happened at a time when 

 my attention was not turned scientifically to the subject, and I have 

 forgotten other singularities of the specimens. By the third year the 

 bill becomes black, and the colour of the plumage less intense, except 

 on the top of the head and back of the neck, which are the last parts 

 forsaken by the colour. Swans of the sixth year have assumed all the 

 characters of the adult, and very old birds have a hard protuberance 

 on the bend of the last joint of the wing. When less than six years 

 of age, these birds are very tender and delicious eating, having the 

 colour and flavour of the goose ; the latter quality, however, being 

 more concentrated and luscious. Hearne considers a Swan, " when 

 roasted, equal in flavoiu- to young heifer beef, and the Cygnets are very 

 delicate." As these birds live to a great age, they grow more tough 

 and dry as they advance, the patriarchs being as unmasticable and un- 

 savoury as the Cygnets are tender and delightful. 



" There are many modes practised in the United States of destroying 

 these princely ornaments of the water. In shooting them whilst fly- 

 ing with the wind, the writer just mentioned declares, " they are the 

 most difficult bird to kill I know, it being frequently necessary to take 

 sight ten or twelve feet before the bill,'" This I should consider an 

 unnecessary allowance, unless driven by a hurricane, but, on ordinary 

 occasions, the bill is aimed at, and if going with a breeze at a long shot, 

 a foot before the bill would be quite sufficient. The covering is so ex- 

 tremely thick on old birds, that the largest drop shot will rarely kill 

 unless the Swan is struck in the neck or under the wing, and I have 

 often seen large masses of feathers torn from them, without for an in- 

 stant impeding their progress. 



" When wounded in the wing alone, a large Swan will readily beat 

 off a dog, and is more than a match for a man in four feet water, a stroke 

 of the wing having broken an arm, and the powerful feet almost oblite- 

 rating the face of a good-sized duck-shooter. They are often killed by 



