524 



MY GARDEN. 



hole, and each time brought out a young rat, which he crunched 

 with his powerful beak. My male swan (fig. 1124a) has a marking 

 on each side of the head of a bright pink colour, produced by coloured 

 feathers, which come after moulting, and last till the following July. 



The young birds attain a fair size by Michaelmas, about which 

 time we usually catch them to be fattened. For this purpose they 

 are placed in a pen in the watercress brook and fed with biscuits 

 and corn — a rather expensive process, as at Norwich, where this plan 

 is followed out, the charge for fattening a swan is one sovereign. 

 The birds are often of great weight, and when killed require to be 

 kept two or three weeks to make them tender; they are then 



i-^- 





fill I ^ / \ V ■^. i 



Fig. 1124a.— Head of Swa 

 Fig. 1124. — Common Swan, 



roasted, when they taste somewhat like wild duck, and should be 

 eaten, like them, with lemon and cayenne pepper. 



Before Christmas the old swans begin to drive their young, when, 

 if not pinioned— that is, having their wings amputated at the elbow- 

 joint— they will rise from the water, soaring aloft in the most grace- 

 ful manner, and visit some other locality. These flying swans are 

 a great ornament to the neighbourhood, for a flight of six or seven 

 is a fine sight. 



I was advised to keep swans by Professor Owen, in order to 

 lessen the American water-weed {Anackaris), and this advice has 

 proved to be most excellent, as a pair of old swans with their 

 progeny devour and destroy a prodigious amount of this weed in 



