THE SWAN. 
281 
sooty cygnets^ attended by the negro parents^ may be gene- 
rally seen during the summer months on ponds in our gar- 
dens and public places of resort ; and though the first short 
sentence of Horace Walpole is not exactly suitable to one of 
this species^ the others are : — The colouring of the swan 
is pure; his attitudes are graceful; he never displeases you 
when sailing on his proper element. His feet are ugly ; his 
walk not natural. . . . Still the impression a swan leaves 
is that of grace.^^ 
The swans in Iceland^ during the breeding season^ retire 
in pairs to the small lakes^ where they conceal themselves 
among reeds; and^ according to Sir George Mackenzie^ 
many are thus protected from the attacks of the people, 
who receive the value of a few shillings for their skins from 
the Danish merchants. 
Captain Lyon"^ describes the nest of a swan which he 
saw in Winter Island, in the Arctic regions, in the spring 
of 1822. This nest was a large oval mound of peat, made 
up of small pieces not exceeding a walnut in bigness; and as 
the country around was at the time almost entirely covered 
with snow, the materials must have been fetched from a 
considerable distance, and must have occasioned great labour 
* Private Journal, p. 205. 
