BRITISH -BIRDS. 
ayS 
knob, on the bafe of the upper mandible, and in the 
colour of the bill, which in this is red, with black 
edges and tip : the naked Ikin between the bill and 
the eyes is alfo of the latter colour : in the Wild 
Swan this bare fpace is yellow. 
The manners and habits are much the fame in 
both kinds, particularly when they are in a wild 
ftate; for indeed this fpecies cannot properly be 
called domefticated ; they are only as it were part- 
ly reclaimed from a ftate of nature, and invited by 
the friendly and proteding hand of man to decorate 
and embellifli the artificial lakes and pools which 
beautify his pleafure grounds. On thefe the Swan 
cannot be accounted a captive, for he enjoys all the 
fweets of liberty. Placed there, as they are the 
largeft of all the Britifli birds, fo are they to the 
eye the moft pleafing and elegant. What in na- 
ture can be more beautiful than the grafly-margined 
lake, hung round with the varied foliage of the 
grove, when contrafted with the pure refplendent 
whitenefs of the majeftic Swan, wafted along, with 
ereded plumes, by the gentle breeze,— or floating, 
refleded on the glaflfy furface of the water, while 
he throws himfelf into numberlefs graceful atti- 
tudes, as if defirous of attrading the admiration 
of the fpedator ? 
The Swan, although poflefled of the power to 
rule, yet molefts none of the other water-birds, 
and is fingularly focial and attentive to thofe of 
