184 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



of several hundreds before me, without the possibility of 

 getting quite within shooting distance. 



The skins of Swans still covered by the down, which is 

 very thick, are often used in our country for bonnets and 

 tippets, and at Hudson's Bay, a great trade formerly existed 

 with the down and quills. The Indians also employ the 

 skins for dresses for their women of rank, and the feathers 

 for ornaments for the head. 



It is a curious circumstance, that Wilson has neither fig- 

 ured nor described this beautiful and common bird in his Or- 

 nithology, but JNIr. Lawson the engraver of his splendid 

 plates, and also his personal friend, informs me, he had 

 waited for another southern expedition, which he did not 

 live to perform. A particular history, in detail, of this 

 splendid bird has heretofore never been given to the public. 

 The following description of the Genus Cygnus I have 

 taken from Buonaparte's Synop. Birds. U. S. " Bill at base 

 higher than broad, gibbous, subcylindric above, of equal 

 breadth throughout, obtuse : teeth lamilliform : upper 

 mandible unguiculated and curved at tip, lower shorter, 

 narrower, covered b^- the margins of the upper, flattened : 

 nostrils medial, oval, open, pervious, covered by a mem- 

 brane : tongue thick, fleshy, broad, fimbriated on the sides, 

 obtuse. Head small, lora naked : neck longer than the 

 body : bodj'^ much compressed, elegantly shaped : feet far 

 back, very short and stout : wings long when folded, pri- 

 maries hardly reach bejond the secondaries : first and fourth 

 primaries equal, second and third longest. 



" C. Jems. White, bill black, without protubei'ance, bare 

 space round the eye yellow." 



The American Swan is five feet long — hill three inches — 

 twenty feathers in the tall and weight from twenty-four to 

 thirty pounds. 



The wild Swan differs from the mute or tame Swan, 

 according to the "Description of the IMenagerie of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London published under the direction of the 

 Institution" in having twelve ribs on each side, whilst the 

 tame has but eleven. There is no protuberance on the bill 

 as in the tame, and in the latter, the bill is of an orange red, 

 with the exception of the edges, the protuberance on the 

 top, a slight hook at the extremity, the nostrils and the 

 naked spaces extending from the base towards the eyes — 

 all of which are black. The mute, carries the neck more 

 curved than the other, and the windpipe passes into the 

 lungs without any of the singular convolution presently to 

 be described. Buflbn strangely remarks, that this diflerence 

 in the internal structure may be the result of domestication. 

 This would be an astonishing effect produced by association 

 with man, that the credulity of the times even of that writer, 

 could hardly believe, still less, in these days of science and 

 discovery. 



Linne says the Wild Swan (A. cygrrns ferus) has eleven 

 on each side, and the tame twelve, which is the reverse of 

 the above description. Pennant also gives twelve for the 

 wild bird I have not had an opportunity of ascertaining the 

 number in our own Swan. 



The wild Swan of England, and that of America, have 

 been till lately considered by naturalists as identical, and 

 consisting of but one species. Mr. Yarrell, evidently a close 

 observer of nature, in a paper published in the Linnsean 

 Transactions of London, has asserted the existence of two 

 distinct species in the English wild Swan, and supposes 

 there is also the same in America. His new species, he calls 

 after the celebrated naturalist Bewick {Cygnvs bewickii), 

 and says, it differs from the Hooper or the common 

 kind, in having the bare space around and before the 

 eyes, and over the front of the forehead to the extent of 3-4 

 of an inch, orange yellow — bill narrow at the middle and di- 

 latedatthe point — eyes, orange-yellow — tail havingeighteen 

 feaihers, whole length three feet nine inches and weighing but 

 fourteen pounds; whilst in the Hooper, the bare space is yel- 

 low — eyes brown — sidesof bill parallel — tail having twenty 

 feathers, whole length five feet and weighing twenty pounds. 

 The greatest difference however, consists in the arrangement 

 of the trachea or windpipe in the sternum or breast bone. 

 This writer says, in the Hooper, the windpipe after pass- 

 ing down the neck, continues on and enters a chamber 

 formed between the two plates of the keel of the bone, and 

 after running to the depth of three inches in a bone of eight 

 and a half inches in length, folds on itself, always retaining 

 the vertical position in its doubling, and returns out at the 

 same orifice it entered the keel, and winding round the 

 merry-thought, (os furcatorium), takes the regular route 

 to the lungs. 



In his Bewick's Swan, a similar cavity is formed in the 

 keel for the windpipe, but it continues back through 

 the whole length of the keel, and into the body of the 

 sternum and forms a horizontal CAv'iiy there, whilst in the 

 keel, the greatest diameter of the chamber is vertical. This 

 posterior sack, is formed by the separation of the upper and 

 lowerplatesof the "posterior or flattened portion of the breast 

 bone, and producing a convex protuberance on the inner sur- 

 face. " Into this posterior sack, the windpipe enters after 

 traversing the whole length of the cavity in the keel, and its 

 duplication changes from the vertical to the horizontal posi- 

 tion, the loop occupying this round bony bag. In a bone 

 six 3-8 inches in length, the depth of the whole cavity was 

 five 3-4 inches, showing an immense anatomical difference 

 between this Swan and the Hooper. In the oldest Hooper, 

 the cavity never extended in the slightest degree, farther 

 back than the keel, and the fold of the pipe never left the 

 vertical position at any age ; whilst in the Bewick, in the 



