AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS, 



181 



WILD SWAN. 

 CYGNUS FERUS. 



[Plate XVL] 



(By John T. Sharpless, M. D.) 



Anas ci/gmis ferus, Linn. — Cy gnus ferns, Briss. — Le 

 Cygne sauvage, Buff. — Elk, or Hooper Swan, Ray 

 Whistling Swan, Lath. Pennant. — Cygnus musicus, 

 Bechst. — Siaan, Wilson's List. — TVapa-Seu, In- 

 dians Hud. Bat. — J. Doughty's Collection. 



The Swan has been emphatically called the peaceful 

 monarch of the Lake. It is undoubtedly the most beau- 

 tiful of all the water-birds, whether we consider the spot- 

 less purity of its plumage, the gracefulness of its contour, 

 or the majesty of its movements. It is in its own element 

 alone, that it can display its charms, being extremely awk- 

 ward and inelegant in all its motions when placed on its feet, 

 but when seen peacefully engaged in the excitement of 

 play, or calmly dressing its stainless garb in the lovely mir- 

 ror on which it floats, it is one of the most agreeable and 

 untiring ornaments in nature. 



The princely magnificence of the Swan has attracted 

 from the earliest day the attention of every admirer of 

 the beauties of creation, and having been chosen by the 

 ancients as the mansion of departed Poets, is sufficient evi- 

 dence of their love and veneration. 



" The dying Swan's last, sweetest note," 



was supposed to be the departure of the poetic spirit to 

 happier realms, and although, to the crude ear of moderns, 

 the dying expiration of the Swan is not wafted on the wings 

 of melody, the change may have arisen from a vitiation of 

 musical taste, or perhaps, as Morin says, 



'^ The Swans that once so sweetly sang, 

 Sing very illy now." 



There have been heretofore described but five distinct 

 species of this bird. The wild Swan of Europe, has been 

 recently divided by Mr. Yarrell into the Hooper Swan 

 and Bewick Swan, although, until this division, they were 

 considered the same bird and identical with the Swan of 

 America. 2dly, the Mute or Tame S. (Cygnus olor,) 

 3dly, the Black Necked S. of the Falkland Islands, (C. 

 nigricollis J , and the Black S. of Australia (C. atratus.) 



As the distinction drawn by Mr. Yarrell between the 

 two species in the common wild Swan, which he presumes 

 to hold good both in the European and American bird, can- 

 not be readily discovered, and the habits of both being 

 Z z 



much the same, I will consider them, for the present, as 

 identical. 



The Swan of which we are now speaking, has spread 

 widely over the greater part of the northern hemisphere, 

 being found at different seasons, in perhaps every portion 

 of that immense zone between the Arctic Circle and the 

 Tropic of Cancer, descending in the autumn into Egypt 

 and the West India Islands, and during the summer, 

 disturbing with its harsh scream the solitary forests of the 

 Frozen Ocean. In America, they were seen b}^ Captain 

 Franklin on the shores of the Arctic Sea, and Iceland is 

 but a stopping place for crowds that pass to the north even 

 of that Island. They make their appearance at those places 

 in April, and at Hudson's Ba}' in March. 



The journal of Major Long's Expedition to the Rocky 

 Mountains saj-s, the Swans were seen passing to the north 

 as early as the 23d of February. They are the first migra- 

 tory birds that arrive at Hudson's Bay, except a few snow- 

 birds which lead the van of this vernal expedition. The Swan 

 breeds in Lapland, Kamtschatka, Siberia, Iceland, and in 

 Hudson's Bay, and in the range of lakes and rivers found 

 to the westward and northward of the latter place, across the 

 whole American continent. They arrive at these summer 

 residences in flocks of from twenty to one hundred, and, as 

 the spots suitable for the nests, are often still frozen, they 

 frequent the feet of falls and rapids, and streams that can 

 be kept open by splashing and beating with their wings and 

 feet. They are strictly monogamous, and breed in the 

 islands and low ground, amid the reeds and grass, mak- 

 ing their nests of leaves and sedge. They desposit from five 

 to seven eggs of a dirty white colour with a shade of green, 

 "one of which," says Hearne, "is sufficient for a mode- 

 rate man without bread." The eggs hatch in July, and in 

 August the moulting season arrives, when they are unable 

 to fly, and are killed in Iceland in great numbers by dogs, 

 who are taught to seize them by the neck, and at Hud- 

 son's Bay, by sticks and stones. They can, however, even 

 in this state, far outstrip a canoe, traversing the surface of 

 water with the assistance of the stumps of their wings and 

 feet, at a very rapid rate. The traveller just quoted, de- 

 scribes two species of Swans that frequent Hudson's Bay, 

 one kind, weighing upwards of thirty, and the other 

 but about twenty pounds; the largest birds making the 

 loudest note. The smallest species keep the sea coast, and 

 are more rare than the other, generally appearing but in 

 pairs. 



Writers on Iceland say, that the yearling Cygnets re- 

 main there the first year. In America, this does not take 

 place, all going off together. 



About the first of September, the Swans leave the shores 

 of the Polar sea, according to Franklin, and resort to the 



