THE SWAN. 123 



While many a cloudling unfolded in light 

 His lining- of gold or of silvery white. 



Oh, how shall description with pencil or pen 



Pourtray all the Birds now in grove or in glen! 



H«re the trees' bending branches the Perchers pos- 

 sess; 



There the Waders and Swimmers the waters caress; 



While the Scratchers of Earth sought a worm; 

 with a bound 



The Snatchers flew swiftly aloft and around.* 



The Lord of the boundless bright realm of the Air, 

 With his broad sweeping wing, the proud Eagle, was 



there,f 

 His cere and his feet ting'd with yellowish gold ; 

 At once he appear'd both rnajectic and bold : 

 With an eye, beak, and talons, that fierceness express, 

 Yet both plumage and air what is noble confess, — 

 A mien most imposing— a monarch supreme. 

 The Swan,( 4 ) too, sailed stately adown the clear stream; 



(*) Order, Anseres, (Linn.) Swan, Goose, Eider-Duck, 

 Duck, Teal, Widgeon, Garganey, &c. 

 The Genus Anas, of Linnaeus, to which the Swan, Anas Cyg- 

 nus, belongs, is a very large and important tribe of birds, con- 



* See the arrangement of Mr. Vigors, as described in the 

 Introduction. 



t The thought in this couplet is derived from Percival, an 

 American Poet. See note (1), article Halitv'eton, 



G % 



