AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
181 
WILD SWAN. 
CYGNUS FERUS. 
[Plate XVI.] 
(By John T. Sharpless, M. D.) 
Anas cygnus ferus, Linn. — Cygnus ferus, Briss. — Le 
Cygne sauvage, Buff. — Elk, or Hooper Swan, Ray 
Whistling Swan, Lath. Pennant. — Cygnus musicus, 
Bechst. — Sivan, Wilson’s List. — Wapa-Seu, In- 
dians Hud. Bay. — J. Doughty’s Collection. 
The Swan has been emphatically called the peaceful 
monarch of the Lake. It is undoubtedly the most beau- 
tiful of all the water-birds, whether we consider the spot- 
less purity of its plumage, the gracefulness of its contour, 
or the majesty of its movements. It is in its own element 
alone, that it can display its charms, being extremely awk- 
ward and inelegant in all its motions when placed on its feet, 
but when seen peacefully engaged in the excitement of 
play, or calmly dressing its stainless garb in the lovely mir- 
ror on which it floats, it is one of the most agreeable and 
untiring ornaments in nature. 
The princely magnificence of the Swan has attracted 
from the earliest day the attention of every admirer of 
the beauties of creation, and having been chosen by the 
ancients as the mansion of departed Poets, is sufficient evi- 
dence of their love and veneration. 
“ The dying Swan’s last, sweetest note,” 
was supposed to be the departure of the poetic spirit to 
happier realms, and although, to the crude ear of moderns, 
the dying expiration of the Swan is not wafted on the wings 
of melody, the change may have arisen from a vitiation of 
musical taste, or perhaps, as Morin says, 
“ The Swans that once so sweetly sang, 
Sing very illy now.” 
There have been heretofore described but five distinct 
species of this bird. The wild Swan of Europe, has been 
recently divided by Mr. Yarrell into the Hooper Swan 
and Bewick Swan, although,' until this division, they were 
considered the same bird and identical with the Swan of 
America. 2dly, the Mute or Tame S. f Cygnus olor,) 
3dly, the Black Necked S. of the Falkland Islands, (C. 
nigricollis) , and the Black S. of Australia (C. atratus.) 
As the distinction drawn by Mr. Yarrell between the 
two species in the common wild Swan, which he presumes 
to hold good both in the European and American bird, can- 
not be readily discovered, and the habits of both being 
Z z 
much the same, I will consider them, for the present, as 
identical. 
The Swan of which we are now speaking, has spread 
widely over the greater part of the northern hemisphere, 
being found at different seasons, in perhaps every portion 
of that immense zone between the Arctic Circle and the 
Tropic of Cancer, descending in the autumn into Egypt 
and the West India Islands, and during the summer, 
disturbing with its harsh scream the solitary forests of the 
Frozen Ocean. In America, they were seen by Captain 
Franklin on the shores of the Arctic Sea, and Iceland i3 
but a stopping place for crowds that pass to the north even 
of that Island. They make their appearance at those places 
in April, and at Hudson’s Bay in March. 
The journal of Major Long’s Expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains says, the Swans were seen passing to the north 
as early as the 22d of February. They are the first migra- 
tory birds that arrive at Hudson’s Bay, except a few snow- 
birds which lead the van of this vernal expedition. The Swan 
breeds in Lapland, Kamtschatka, Siberia, Iceland, and in 
Hudson’s Bay, and in the range of lakes and rivers found 
to the westward and northward of the latter place, across the 
whole American continent. They arrive at these summer 
residences in flocks of from twenty to one hundred, and, as 
the spots suitable for the nests, are often still frozen, they 
frequent the feet of falls and rapids, and streams that can 
be kept open by splashing and beating with their wings and 
feet. They are strictly monogamous, and breed in the 
islands and low ground, amid the reeds and grass, mak- 
ing their nests of leaves and sedge. They desposit from five 
to seven eggs of a dirty white colour with a shade of green, 
“one of which,” says Hearne, “is sufficient for a mode- 
rate man without bread.” The eggs hatch in July, and in 
August the moulting season arrives, when they are unable 
to fly, and are killed in Iceland in great numbers by dogs, 
who are taught to seize them by the neck, and at Hud- 
son’s Bay, by sticks and stones. They can, however, even 
in this state, far outstrip a canoe, traversing the surface of 
water with the assistance of the stumps of their wings and 
feet, at a very rapid rate. The traveller just quoted, de- 
scribes two species of Swans that frequent Hudson’s Bay, 
one kind, weighing upwards of thirty, and the other 
but about twenty pounds; the largest birds making the 
loudest note. The smallest species keep the sea coast, and 
are more rare than the other, generally appearing but in 
pairs. 
Writers on Iceland say, that the yearling Cygnets re- 
main there the first year. In America, this does not take 
place, all going off together. 
About the first of September, the Swans leave the shores 
of the Polar sea, according to Franklin, and resort to the 
