202 SONG OF THE SWAN. 
known ‘whoop.’ But one summer evening I was amused 
with watching and listening to a domesticated one, as he 
swam up and down the water in the Regent’s Park. He 
turned up a sort of melody, made with two notes, C and 
the minor third, E flat, and kept working his head as if 
delighted with his own performance. 
“The melody, taken down on the spot by a first-rate 
musician, Auguste Bertini, was as follows :— 
8v0. bas. 
ie ee 
cy — 
(Goa aca See pe 
e 
The Abbé Arnaud has written some interesting remarks 
upon the voice of the swan.* He says :— . 
“The swan, with his wings expanded, his neck out- 
stretched, and his head erect, places himself opposite his 
mate, uttering a cry to which the female replies by 
another half a note lower. The voice of the male rises 
from A (/a), to B flat (sz demol) ; that of the female from 
G sharp (sol diese), to A.t The first note is short and 
transient, and has the effect which our musicians term 
sensible ; so that it is not separated from the second, but 
seems to glide into it. Observe that, fortunately for the 
ear, they do not both sing at once; in fact, if, while the 
male sounded B flat, the female gave A, or if the male 
* Wood's ‘‘ Buffon," xix. p. 511, note. 
+ This, it will be observed, differs materially from Col. Hawker's observation, 
