﻿56 ANAT1D.E. 



ing. The attention bestowed by the parents upon the 

 young is incessant, and when fatigued by the strength of the 

 stream, or requiring to be removed to a distance too great for 

 their young capacity, the hen-bird takes the young ones on 

 her back, which she accomplishes by lowering herself a little 

 in the water, and occasionally assisting them to ascend with 

 her foot, and in this manner they are carried in safety to some 

 more desirable spot. The shape of the swan's back, which 

 is very flat, is well adapted for this purpose, and when her 

 wings are raised the young ones repose in the most beautiful 

 and safe cradle imaginable. 



The Mute Swan is indisputably the most elegant of water 

 birds, when floating on its natural element ; and it is, besides, 

 the best swimmer. The beauty of its arched neck and its 

 exquisitely white plumage, as well as its finely proportioned 

 figure, have at all times called forth the admiration of the 

 poet, the painter, and the lover of nature, and must attract 

 the attention of the most common observer. On the ground, 

 or in the act of walking, it is not so much to be admired ; 

 its walk is helpless and waddling. Its flight is performed in 

 a straight line, at the elevation of three or four hundred feet 

 from the ground, when in a wild state ; while those that are 

 partly domesticated, rarely fly more than twenty feet from 

 the ground. 



Swans, like many others of the feathered race, appear very 

 susceptible of atmospheric changes, and are usually consi- 

 dered to shew their consciousness of approaching storms by 

 their restlessness ; we have ourselves many times seen their 

 anticipations verified by the result. 



The foresight of the Mute Swan, also, on the subject of 

 the floods, to which this and other parts of the Thames are 

 periodically subject, is very remarkable ; and so well known, 

 that, when in the spring the Swans are seen raising their nests 



