DECAY OF CERTAIN SPECIES. 115 
they always useless? Did they never disport themselves in happy 
freedom when enjoying a more genial atmosphere, and spending the 
greater portion of the year in the mild climates of Greece and Italy? 
One might be tempted to believe it. The swan, driven back to the 
north, where his amours secure mystery and repose, has sacrificed his 
song, has gained the accent of barbarism, or become voiccless. The 
muse is dead; the bird has survived. 
Gregarious, disciplined, full of tactic and resources, the crane, the 
superior type of intelligence among these species, might contrive, one 
would fancy, to prosper, and to maintain herself everywhere in her 
ancient royalty. She has lost two kingdoms, however: France, 
where she now only appears as a bird of passage; England, whiere she 
rarely ventures to deposit her eggs. 
The heron, in the days of Aristotle, was full of industry and 
sagacity. The ancients consulted him in reference to fine weather or 
tempest, as one of the gravest of augurs. Fallen in the medieval 
days, but preserving his beauty, his heavenward flight, he was still a 
