TRUMPETER SWAN. 223 



The flight of the Trumpeter Swan is firm, at times greatly elevated and 

 sustained. It passes through the air by regular beats, in the same manner as 

 Geese, the neck stretched to its full length, as are the feet, which project 

 beyond the tail. When passing low, I have frequently thought that I heard 

 a rustling sound from the motion of the feathers of their wings. If bound to 

 a distant place, they form themselves in angular lines, and probably the 

 leader of the flock is .one of the oldest of the males; but of this I am not 

 at all sure, as I have seen at the head of a line a grey bird, which must have 

 been a young one of that year. 



This Swan feeds principally by partially immersing the body and extend- 

 ing the neck under water, in the manner of fresh-water Ducks and some 

 species of Geese, when the feet are often seen working in the air, as if to aid 

 in preserving the balance. Often however it resorts to the land, and then 

 picks at the herbage, not sidewise, as Geese do, but more in the manner of 

 Ducks and poultry. Its food consists of roots of different vegetables, leaves, 

 seeds, various aquatic insects, land snails, small reptiles and quadrupeds. 

 The flesh of a cygnet is pretty good eating, but that of an old bird is dry and 

 tough. 



I kept a male alive upwards of two years, while I was residing at Hender- 

 son in Kentucky. It had been slightly wounded in the tip of the wing, and 

 was caught after a long pursuit in a pond from which it could not escape. 

 Its size, weight, and strength rendered the task of carrying it nearly two 

 miles by no means easy; but as I knew that it would please my wife and my 

 then very young children, I persevered. Cutting off the tip of the wounded 

 wing, I turned it loose in the garden. Although at first extremely shy, it 

 gradually became accustomed to the servants, who fed it abundantly, and at 

 length proved so gentle as to come to my wife^s call, to receive bread from 

 her hand. "Trumpeter," as we named our bird, in accordance with the 

 general practice of those who were in the habit of shooting this species, 

 now assumed a character which until then had been unexpected, and laying 

 aside his timidity became so bold at times as to give chase to my favourite 

 Wild Turkey Cock, my dogs, children, and servants. Whenever the gates 

 of our yard happened to be opened, he would at once make for the Ohio, and 

 it was not without difficulty that he was driven home again. On one 

 occasion, he was absent a whole night, and I thought he had fairly left us; 

 but intimation came of his having travelled to a pond not far distant. 

 Accompanied by my miller and six or seven of my servants, I betook 

 myself to the pond, and there saw our Swan swimming buoyantly about as 

 if in defiance of us all. It was not without a great deal of trouble that we at 

 length succeeded in driving it ashore. Pet birds, good reader, no matter of 

 what species they are, seldom pass their lives in accordance with the wishes 



