224 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
pleasing adjunct to a landscape at any time, but when 
they move in dense throngs, only those who have seen 
them can imagine what a spirited picture they present. 
Linneus classed the swans among the duck family, 
notwithstanding the marked difference between them, 
and that, one which is apparent at a glance. The legs of 
the swan are, in the first place, behind the centre of 
equilibrium, and the bill is high and long, whereas the 
legs of the ducks are, proportionately, much shorter, and 
placed near the center of the body, and the bill is short, 
flat, and broad. 
The position of the legs makes the swan a slow and 
awkward traveller on land, but in its native element it 
can swim as fast as an ordinary man can walk. Its food 
consists of frogs, leeches, small fish, grass, grain, and 
aquatic plants, and as they are abundant in the West, it 
suffers very little from hunger. In plucking the aquatic 
plants, the little tooth plaits of the bill enable the water 
to pass out, so that it does not drink any more than is 
necessary. It crops the grass direct from the tip of the 
bill, as ducks and hens do, not from the sides, like geese. 
Swans being monogamous, the male lives with a single 
female, and to win her, he, like nearly all feral creatures, 
is often forced to fight the most desperate battles against 
all rivals. These contests are waged with such fury that 
the combatants are sometimes placed hors de combat for 
the season, and, perhaps, fatally injured, for they use 
both beaks and wings, and peck and slash at each other 
in the most frantic manner. When the victor has driven 
his rival from the field, he advances boldly to the female 
and leads her away without any ceremony, but when he 
recovers from the exhaustion of the struggle he becomes 
very affectionate, and quietly watches her while she 
builds a rude nest on the ground. He is unusually ten- 
der while she is laying her eggs, and when she com- 
mences hatching he guards her closely, and with such 
