SWIMMEES. 



303 



bill of the one seems to touch the tail of the other. The Wild 

 Swan has been styled " the peaceful monarch of the lake.'' 



Its bill is semi-cylindrical and black; cere, yellow; body, 

 whit* ; head and nape, slightly tinted with yellowish streaks ; iris, 



The Whistling Swan, 



brown; legs and feet, black. The female is somewhat smaller 

 than the male, and the young are grey. The length of the full- 

 grown male is from four feet five to four feet nine inches ; the 

 extent of wing six, feet three inches ; and the weight from fifteen 

 to twenty-five pounds. 



The Tame or Mute Swan. — The bill of the Tame Swan 

 is red ; the fleshy tubercle and the base and edges of the mandi- 

 bles black, and the body white. In length, size, and weight, it 

 diflfers very little from the Whistling or Hooping Swan already 

 described. Calmet's account of this bird is striking and inter- 

 esting ; " The Swan is a large water-fowl, that has a long neck, 

 and is very white, excepting when it is young. Its legs and feet 

 arc black. Its bill is like that of a goose, but somewhat rounder,^ 



