204 
THE WILD SWAN. 
caught in a truly wild state in any part of Britain. As it 
is, however, but a seini- domesticated bird, breeding freely 
in many parts of these islands, in the moist and reedy 
wildernesses, where man seldom intrudes upon its privacy, 
it may now claim a place among British birds, although 
certainly not an indigenous species, any more than the 
Pheasant is. 
Grand and stately creatures are all the Swans, and this 
is, perhaps, the most so of any. Who has not paused to 
admire her, as she, 
With arched neck 
Between the white wings mantling, proudly rows 
Iler state with oary feet, 
as Milton describes ? It is, in truth, a beautiful and magni- 
ficent bird ; and one wonders not that this Queen of the 
Crystal Wave should sit upon her glassy throne surrounded 
by a halo of poetry and imagination — 
The snowy Swan, that like a fleecy cloud 
Sails o'er the crystal of reflected heaven 
(Some waveless stream), while through her reedy wings 
The Zephyr makes such distant melody, 
That up we gaze upon the twilight stars, 
And think it is the spheral musig. 
SWAX. 
