THE COMMON SWAN. 247 



female, so that a brood may be obtained from an old' 

 hen, and a cook bird in his second year. In selecting 

 a pair, the great .thing is to make sure of having two 

 birds of opposite sexes. Two cook birds will not live 

 together, and their mutual aversion would soon show 

 that all was not right ; but two hens will — which is 

 the case also with pigeons. 



DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE MALE AND FEMALE. 



In selecting any water birds whose plumage is alike 

 in both sexes, and which cannot, therefore, be distin- 

 guished with certainty, the best rule is to see them in 

 the water, and take that which swims deepest for the 

 female ; and that which floats with greatest buoyancy 

 for the male, remembering that, as a general rule, all 

 creatures of the masculine gender have the largest 

 lungs in proportion to their size. The neck of the 

 cock swan is usually thicker. An experienced eye 

 will, besides, detect a certain feminine gentleness and 

 modesty in the one, and an alacrity and boldness in 

 in the other, which is a tolerably safe guide, as well as 

 an appropriate and becoming attribute to the creatures 

 themselves. 



FEEDING-, MANAGEMENT, ETC. 



Supposing the reader to have obtained two cygnets 

 that are not mere friends, but actually husband and 

 wife, he will recollect that those reserved for fatting 

 are never pinioned, lest it should check their progress, 

 and he will request the operation to be performed be- 

 fore he has them home, in order that they may have 

 the fewest possible disagreeable reminisences, connect- 

 ed with the spot where they are to spend their lives. 

 The amputation of the part of the wing, which corre- 

 sponds to our hand, is quite sufficient to prevent the_ 

 flight of the short- winged species, so far as migration 

 is concerned, disfigures them less than the closer prun- 

 ing, and still leaves them the means of escape from a 



