Book III. O^S^lT HO LOqT. 357 



On the fides of the Rump grow two huge glandules, out of which by alight 

 preflfure may be fqueezed a certain glutinous fubftance like to ear-wax, wherewith 

 ihe anoints and compofes her feathers. But thefe glandules are not peculiar to this 

 Bird, though perchance greater and more remarkable in her, but common to all. The 

 Bird we defcribed was a Female. The knot or bunch of Eggs was (ituate far within 

 the body, between the very Lobes of the Lungs. The Wind-pipe enters the bread- 

 bone, and comes out again below the Merry-thought ; The ftomach is very flefhy 5 

 and furnifhed with thick mufcles. Above the Stomach the Gullet is dilated into a 

 bag, thick-fet, and as it were granulated within with many papillary glandules, ex- 

 cerninga kind of Saliva, which ferves as a mbttftruum to macerate the meat. 



The Wind-pipe reflected in form of a Trumpet feems to be fo contrived and formed 

 by nature for modulating the voice. Hence what the Ancients have delivered con- 

 cerning the ringing of «SW#.r(if it be true, which I much doubt) feems chiefly to 

 agree to this bird, and not to the tame Swan. 



For my part, thofe dories of the Ancients concerning the finging of Swans,viz,that 

 thole Birds at other times, but efpecially when their death approaches; do with a moft 

 fweet and melodious modulation of their voice, fing their own N<senia or funeral fong, 

 feemed to me always very unlikely and fabulous, and to have been therefore not un- 

 deservedly exploded by Staliger and others. Howbeit Aldrovandus, weighing on both 

 fides the Arguments and Authorities of learned men, hath ( he faith ) obferved 

 them to be equal $ wherefore tocaft thefcale, and eftablifh the affirmative, he thinks 

 that wonderful ftru&ure of the Wind-pipe, by .him firft obferved, is of weight fuftV 

 cient. But this Argument though it be very ipecious and plaufible, yet doth it not 

 conclude the controverfie. For we have obferved in the Wind-pipe of the Cram the 

 like ingrefs into the cavity of the Breaft-bone, and reflection therein, or a more re- 

 markable one 5 yet no man, that I know of, ever commended the Crane for finging, or 

 mufical modulation of its voice. But if you ask me, to what purpofe then doth the 

 Wind-pipe enter into the breaft-bone, and is in that manner refle&cd there > I muft in- 

 genuoufly confefs, I do not certainly and fully knoW. Yet may there be other rea- 

 sons affigned thereof 5 as that which * Aldrovand alledges in the fir ft place, I. That *omtboU 

 whereas fbmetimes for almoft half an hours (pace the Swan continues with her heels t ' 3 ' p,I? " 

 up, and her head under water, feeking and gathering up her food from the bottom of 

 the Pool or River fhe (wims in, that part of the Wind-pipe enclofed in the breaft- 

 bone may fupply her with air enough to ferve her alt that while. So the ufe of it will 

 be to be a ftore-houie of air, for the advantage of diving and continuing long under 

 water. 2. This kind of ftru&ure doth undoubtedly conduce much to the increafing 

 the ftrength and force of the voice. For that the wild Swan hath a very loud and 

 fhrillcry, and which may be heard a long way off, the 'Englijh name Hooper, impofed 

 upon it ( as I fiippofe ) from its hooping and hollowing noife doth import." 



Hence it appears how uncertain and fallacious a way of arguing it is from the final 

 caufe. For though Nature, Gods ordinary Minifter, always acts for fome end, yet 

 what that is we are often ignorant, and it doth not rarely fall out to be far different 

 from what we fancy : Nay we may be deceived when we think we are moft fure, and 

 imagine it can be no other than what we have prefumed. 



Wherefore I make more account of the teftimonies he alledges 3 as of Frederick^ 

 Penda(iut,that affirmed he had often heard Swans finging fweetly in the Lake of Man- 

 tua, as he was rowed up and down in a Boat. But as for the teftimony of George 

 Braun concerning flocks of Swans in the Sea near London, meeting, and as it were 

 welcoming the Fleets of Ships returning home with loud and chearful finging, is with* 

 out doubt moft falfe : We having never heard of any fuch thing. 



* Olaus Wormim of late confirms the opinion of Aldrovand,. and the reports of the * M& 

 Ancients concerning the finging of Swans, producing the Teftimonies of fome of his cSp.13. 

 familiars and Scholars who profeffed themfelves to have heard their mufic. There 

 was ( faith he ) in my Family a very honeft young man, one Mr. John Rofiorph Student 

 in Divinity, a Norwegian by Nation. This man did upon his credit, and with the 

 interpofition of an Oath folemnly affirm, that himfelf in the Territory of Dronten 

 did once by the Sea-fhore early in the Mosning hear an unufual and moft fweet 

 murmur compofed of moft pleafant whiftlings and founds: Which, when as he knew* 

 not whence it came, or how it was made, for that he faw no man near which might be 

 the author of it, looking round about him, and climbing up the top of a certain Pro- 

 montory, he efpied an infinite number of Swans gathered together in a Bay of the 

 Sea near hand, making that harmony 5 a fweeter than which in all his lives time he 



had 



