CYGNUS OLOR. 



(Mute Swan.) 



In the ' Field ' newspaper, Nov. 10, 1860, " E. W." remarks :— "The male 

 and female Swan are called the cob and pen ; but Vigorina says, in the 

 ' Curiosities of London,' edited by John Timbs, under Dyers Hall, there 

 is an account of Swan upping; the male is called a cob and the female 

 aplu." 



In the ' Memoirs of the Court of Austria,' by Dr. E. Vehse, we find 

 (p. 5) : — " Maximilian, son of the Emperor Maximilian III., was shut up in 

 prison at Bruges by the citizens. Conrad von der Rosen made an attempt 

 to rescue him (he held the office of jester to Maximilian), and plunged into 

 the ditch of the Castle of Bruges with two swimming-belts, one for himself 

 and one for his master ; but the Swans attacked the faithful jester, and drove 

 him back with their wings." This must have been before 1493, the date of 

 the death of Frederic III. In consequence of this durance, when Maximilian 

 did get out, he put forty burghers of Bruges to death. As nothing is said of 

 the Swans, we may suppose they escaped punishment. 



May 18, 1863. I saw four Cygnets in the Ouse, S. Neots, Huntingdon- 

 shire, apparently not long hatched — funny little brown birds with black 

 beaks, which crept under the old one's wings. 



" So doth the Swan her downy cygnets save, 

 Keeping them prisoner underneath her wings." 



Henry VI. Part 1, Act V. Sc. 3*. 



The very ancient idea, that the Swan sings before its death, has 



* Harting's ' Ornithology of Shakespeare.' 



R 



