DOMESTIC POULTKT. 



The swan must not only be regarded as an ornament to 

 pleasure-strounds and parks, but also as a bird of great utility. 

 For the discovery of the latter quality, it is said, we are in- 

 debted to the late Marquis of Exeter. On the estate of this 

 nobleman, at Burghley, there was a sheet of water which was 

 80 overrun with weeds, that their destruction gave employ- 

 ment to three men six months of the year. At last, in 1796, 

 two pair of swans were introduced by the marquis, and soon a 

 great and remarkable change took place : in one year the 

 whole expanse of water was completely cleared of weeds, and 

 so remained ; the swans devouring the weeds as soon as they 

 began to spring up. 



The cygnet, or the young swan, was formerly much es- 

 teemed; but it has "fallen from its high estate," and is 

 now rarely seen upon the table. We are not sure that it 

 is not still fattened at Norwich for the corporation of that 

 place. Persons who have property on the river there 

 take the young birds, and send them to some one who is em- 

 ployed by the corporation, to be fed ; and for this trouble he is 

 paid, or was wont to be paid, about a half a guinea a bird. 

 It is as the fiiture bird of elegance and grace that the young 

 swan is mostly admired ; when it has become old enough to 

 grace the waters, then it is that all admire her, — when she 

 with — • 



" Archbd neck, 

 Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows 

 Her state with oary feet." 



OUINEA-I'OWUU 



