Birds Swans 
swan’s egg. In very early times the swanherds 
called the male swan a ‘“‘cob,’’ and the female a 
“pen,” and the young were called cygnets, as they 
are today. 
The swan was also much prized in ancient times. 
It was the bird of Apollo, and especially belonged 
to the muses. Through literature, from the times 
of the Greeks down to today, we find the story of the 
song of the swan; how it lifted its graceful neckand 
poured forth its beautiful melody, its first and last 
song, and then hid its head beneath its wing and 
dying, floated away upon the waters. This beauti- 
ful story could only have happened in those days 
when everything was true. The swan’s voice is 
harsh, and its note is a repeated “hoop, hoop, 
hoop,”’ and it is only musical when heard from afar. 
There are less than a dozen species of swans, all 
told. We have two noble species in America, the 
Trumpeter and the Whistler. These are both 
western birds, and breed from the Dakotas north- 
ward to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Both 
species have a peculiar development of the wind- 
pipe, which penetrates the keel of the breast-bone 
to its hind-portion, and then is bent forward again 
to the front of this bone before going to the lungs. 
No wonder that swans can “hoop” with such an 
apparatus as this. The Whistling swan of Europe 
is likewise equipped, and the Greeks named it 
“Ferus,’’ because they thought its voice musical. 
In the wild state, swans are great flyers; they fly 
very high, beyond our sight, and when flying form 
in two lines which converge to a point occupied by 
the leader, as do the wild geese. Swans are tre- 
mendous swimmers, being able to swim faster than 
aman can walk. 
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