SWANS. 
The species of swans are somewhat limited in number. 
The common tame swan, the best -known of all, has been 
recognized as an ornament on the various rivers and lakes, 
both public and private, for many generations ; but unless 
these birds are pinioned, that is, the primaries of one 
wing kept short or the primaries removed by separating 
them from the wing at the carpal joint, the birds are apt 
to stray and fly from their homes. 
There are two other species which are met with 
occasionally in England, the Hooper and the Bewick swan. 
There is also the Black swan of Australia, the Black- 
necked swan of Chili and the Falkland Islands, a small 
species of swan called the Coscoroba, also a native of 
Chili, and the Trumpeter of North America. 
The swan has been considered and regarded by some 
persons as a domestic bird. The question may be asked. 
What is a domestic bird ? 
In the first place, unless the swan is mutilated and 
deprived of the power of flight, so soon as it is adult 
it reverts to the wild nature and disposition of the 
species. 
It is not on this account, alone, that it can be argued 
that the swan is not a domestic bird ; there are other 
reasons to be advanced in order to show that the species 
has not undergone any alteration in its size, plumage, or 
habits after being kept for upwards of four hundred years 
under control by the practice of pinioning, for unless the 
cygnets were pinioned they would escape from their 
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