60 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



These beautiful wild Swans seem to have both the conjugal 

 and parental feelings strongly developed. They resent any 

 approach (construing the term most widely) of any other Swan 

 to their cygnets, fearing, as I believe, their appropriation. In 

 this they may be well advised, for the Mute Swan, where the 

 conditions admit of it, will incorporate any number of cygnets- 

 with its own brood, and the latter seem as ready to follow a 

 foster as a natural parent. Thus in the Swannery at Abbots- 

 bury families cannot long be kept separate, and many Swans are 

 to be seen "with a tail on,"* of a dozen or twenty cygnets or 

 more. It was the keeper's opinion, as expressed to me, that the 

 more any bird could get, in excess of its own, the prouder and 

 better pleased it was, and this was certainly borne out by the 

 look and bearing of all those I saw that were leading these long 

 strings of cygnets. It is indeed asserted — I suppose with truth — 

 that the Mute or Polish Swan may have from six to twelve 

 cygnets, but this I think must be uncommon. At any rate, I 

 did not see a brood of more than six, even if there were any of 

 that number — before they had taken to the water, that is to say 

 before there was an element of doubt. But, at any rate, a 

 following of fifteen or twenty— and many such were to be seen — 

 is beyond the limits of the largest allotted quiverful. 



Eavens are common in Iceland. There is a great glamour 

 about this bird, which goes so far with some as to make them 

 want to depose the Eagle in its favour ; but then they must be 

 mad or never have seen an Eagle flying, but that is what a 

 glamour can do. As for me, I think I prize the bird at his true 

 worth, but I have not been particularly lucky in regard to him — 

 he has not yet given me of his best. He has never torn up the 

 ground, for me, in impotent fury, or struck a Peregrine dead, in 

 a happier outburst, or done anything preternaturally cunning or 

 beyond the intelligence of another bird, of a Duck or a Curlew^ 

 for instance, though I admit he always looked as if it were — 

 much — whatever it was. On the other hand, I have several 

 times seen him cut a somewhat poor figure, and by as much as 

 he was superior in himself, whilst he did so, by so much he cut, 

 it more poorly. This morning, for instance, he has flown from 

 lake to mountain pursued by Terns and uttering pitiful cries as. 

 * See 'Waverley,' chap. xvi. 



