Swans Birds 
Although all species of swans have been domesti- 
cated, the swan usually seen in our parks is an 
European species, domesticated for at least 800 
years. It is called the Mute swan because it is 
silent in captivity; but naturalists say that when 
wild, it trumpets loudly during the breeding season, 
although it has no special convolution of the wind- 
pipe to aid it. The Black swan of Australia is also 
often seen in parks. The beauty of the swan lies 
in its long and graceful neck, which includes from 
twenty-three to twenty-five vertebrae, thus giving 
it all of the grace of the serpent. 
As pets, swans are better to look at than to be 
familiar with; their attitude is often hostile toward 
us, and occasionally they persecute all the smaller 
birds of a pond. I knew one that drove out or 
killed all the fancy ducks in a park pond. 
The male swan is larger than the female, and a 
pair remain mated for life. At pairing age the male 
swans fight each other fiercely; each tries to drown 
his rival by holding his head under water. 
The swan builds a nest of straw and twigs, and 
during the incubating season the setting parent, 
usually the female, amuses herself by reaching 
out her long neck and seizing anything that is 
movable and heaping it up around her, thus walling 
up her nest until it is as private as an English garden. 
The nests are thus often six feet across, and two 
feet high. The eggs are from five to nine, usually 
seven, in number, and are grayish olive in color. 
The swan incubates six weeks. The cygnets do 
not leave the nest for at least twenty-four hours 
after hatching; then the parents take them to the 
water. The mother is very tender of her young- 
sters, and will lower herself under the little creatures 
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