SWANS. 



The species of swans are somewhat limited in number. 

 The common tame swan, the best-known of all, has been 

 recognized as an ornament on the various rivers and lakes, 

 both public and private, for many generations ; but unless 

 these birds are pinioned, that is, the primaries of one 

 wing kept short or the primaries removed by separating 

 them from the wing at the carpal joint, the birds are apt 

 to stray and fly from their homes. 



There are two other species which are met with 

 occasionally in England, the Hooper and the Bewick swan. 

 There is also the Black swan of Australia, the Black- 

 necked swan of Chili and the Falkland Islands, a small 

 species of swan called the Coscoroba, also a native of 

 Chili, and the Trumpeter of North America. 



The swan has been considered and regarded by some 

 persons as a domestic bird. The question may be asked. 

 What is a domestic bird ? 



In the first place, unless the swan is mutilated and 

 deprived of the power of flight, so soon as it is adult 

 it reverts to the wild nature and disposition of the 

 species. 



It is not on this account, alone, that it can be argued 

 that the swan is not a domestic bird ; there are other 

 reasons to be advanced in order to show that the species 

 has not undergone any alteration in its size, plumage, or 

 habits after being kept for upwards of four hundred years 

 under control by the practice of pinioning, for unless the 

 cygnets Were pinioned they would escape from their 



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