^^74 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
to decorate the heads of their chiefs and warriors* 
They alfo gather the feathers and down in large 
quantities, and barter or fell them to the inhabi- 
tants of more civilized nations. 
BufFon is of opinion that the Tame Swan has been 
derived originally from the wild fpecies ; other natu- 
ralifts entertain a contrary opinion, which they form 
chiefly on the difference between them in the Angular 
conformation of the windpipe. Willoughby fays, 
The windpipe of the Wild Swan, after a flrange 
and wonderful manner enters the breaft-bone in a 
cavity prepared for it, and is therein refleded, and 
after its egrefs at the divarication is conlraded into 
a narrow compafs by a broad and bony cartilage, 
then being divided into two branches, goes on to 
the lungs : thefe branches before they enter the 
lungs, are dilated, and as it were fwollen out into 
two cavities.’’ Dr Heylham corroborates the above, 
and adds, that the Wild Swan, in this particular, 
differs not only from the Tame Swan, but alfo 
from every other bird. The only obfervable ex« 
ternal difference between the two fpecies is in the 
markings of the bill, (which are figured in the fub- 
joined head) and in the Wild Swan’s being of lefs 
bulk than the mute or tame kind. 
Much has been faid, in ancient times, of the Ting- 
ing of the Swan, and many beautiful and poetical 
defcriptions have been given of its dying fong. — 
“No fidion of natural hiflory, no fable of anti- 
