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•■could not be thole melodious birds u Inch poets and orators 
have celebrated and extolled. But the .wild fwan appears to 
have better prel'erved its prerogatives; and, with the Icnti- 
ment of entire liberty, it has alfo the tones. The burlis of 
itsvpice form a fort of modulated long; yet the thrill and 
fcarcely divertified notes of its loud clarion founds, differ 
widely from the tender melody, the tweet and brilliant 
variety, of our finging birds. But it was not enough that 
the fwan fang admirably ; the ancients afcribed to it a 
prophetic fpirit. It alone, of all animated beings, chanted 
in the moment of its agony, and, with harmonious founds, 
prepared to breathe the la ft ligh. When about to expire, 
■they faid, and to bid a fad and tender adieu to life, the 
fwan poured forth thole accents fo fweet, fo affefling, and 
which, like a gentle and doleful murmur, with a voice low, 
plaintive, and melancholy, formed its funeral fong. This 
tearful mufic-was heard at the dawn of day, or when the winds 
and tine waves were Hill : and they have been foen expiring 
with the notes of their dying hymn. No fiction of natural 
hiftory, no fable of antiquity, was ever more celebrated, 
oftener repeated, or better received. It occupied the foft 
and lively imagination of the Greeks : even phdofophers 
and hiftorians adopted it as a truth too pleaiing to be 
doubted. And well may we ex.cu.fe fuch fables; they 
were amiable and affecting ; they were worth many dull 
inffpid truths; they were pleafmg emblems to feeling 
minds. The fwan, doubtlels, chants not its approaching 
end ; but, in fpeaking of the laft flight, the expiring effort 
of a fine genius, we (haU ever, with tender melancholy, 
recal the clalfical and pathetic expreflion, It is the Jong of 
the Jznan! 
In former times, fwans were ferved up at every great 
feaft, when the elegance of the table was meafured by the 
lize and quantity of the good cheer. Cygnets are to this 
day fattened at Norwich about Chriftmas, and are fold for 
a guinea a-piece. Indeed fwans were formerly held in 
fuch great efteenl in England, that by an aft of Edward 
IV. c. 6. “ no one that poffe'Jed a freehold of lets clear 
yearly value than five marks, wuis permitted to keep any, 
other than the fon of our fovereign ford the king.” And 
by the eleventh of Henry VII. c. 17. the punifliment for 
taking their eggs was imprifonment fora year and a day, 
and a fine at the king’s will. We fhall now notice the 
the other mod remarkable fpecies belonging to this genus. 
2. The cygnoideS, with a fomicylindrical bill, gibbous 
wax, and tumid eye-brows, is the fv/an-goofe of Ray, 
from Guinea. There is-likewife.a variety of this fpecies, 
of a lefs fize, called the goofe of Mufcovy. They are found 
wild about the Lake Baikal in the eaft of Siberia, and in 
Kamtfchatka. They are alfo kept tame in moft parts of 
the Ruffian empire. Thefe birds likewife inhabit China, 
and are common at the Cape of Good Hope. This is no 
doubt the fpecies mentioned by Kolben, called crop^goofe ; 
who fays, that the failors make tobacco-pouches and 
purfes of the anembrane which hangs beneath the throat, 
as it is diffidently tough for fuch purpofes, and will hold 
two pounds of tobacco. They are fufficiently common in 
Britain, and readily mix with the common goofe; the 
breeds uniting as freely, and continuing to produce as cer¬ 
tainly, as if no fuch mixture had taken place. They are 
much more noify than the common tame geefe, taking 
alarm at the leaft noife; and even without difturbance 
will emit their harfli and difagreeable feream the whole 
day through. They walk very erect, with the neck much 
elevated; and, as they bear a middle line between that 
of the fwan and goofe, they have not improperly been 
called fwan-goofe. 
3. The tadorna, or fheldrake, has a fiat bill, a com. 
prelled forehead, a greenifh black head,.and the body is 
variegated with w'hite. This fpecies is found as far as 
Iceland to the north. It vifits Sweden and the Orkneys in 
the winter, and returns in fpring. It is found in Affa 
about the Cafpian Sea, and all the fait lakes of the Tar¬ 
tarian and Siberian deferts, as well as in Kamtfchatka. 
Our voyagers, if right in the fpecies, have alfo met with 
Vol. I. No. 33. 
A S, 5T7 
it at Falkland Iflel and Van Dieraeffs Land. ft breeds in 
deferted rabbit holes, or occupies them in the abiencc of 
the owners, who, rqfher than make an attempt at dillodg- 
ing the intruders, form others ; though, in defedt of ready¬ 
made quarters, thele, birds will frequently dig .holes for 
themfelves. They lay fifteen or lixteen roqndilh white 
eggs. Thefe are placed at the farther end of the hole, 
covered with down fupplied from the bread of the female, 
who fits about thirty days. She is very careful of her 
young, and will often carry them from place to place i* 
her bill: “ this we are certain of,” lays Mr. Latham, 
“ from a young one having been dropt at the foot of an 
intelligent friend unhurt, by the mother flying over his 
head.” When a perfon attempts to take their young, the 
old birds (how great addrefs in diverting his attention from 
the brood : they will fly along the ground as if wounded, 
till the former are got into a place of fecurity, and then 
return and collect them together. From this inftindti.ve 
cunning, Turner, with .good reafon, imagines them to be 
the chenalopex, or fox-goofe of the ancients. The natives' 
ot the Orkneys to this day call them the fy-goofe , from an 
attribute of that quadruped. The young, as foon as 
hatched, take to the water, and fwim rapidly; but do not 
come to their full plumage till the, fecond year. This 
fpecies, Mr. Latham informs us, maybe hatched under 
a tame duck, and the young readily brought up; but are 
apt, after a few years, to attempt the mattery over the reft 
of the poultry. In a (late of nature, the food feems chiefly 
to be fmall fifii, marine infedls, and (hells; herbage has 
likewife been found in their ftomachs. In a tame ftate 
they will eat bread, grain, and greens. Their great beau¬ 
ty would tempt us to endeavour at domelticating the race; 
but it will not thrive completely, except in the neighbour¬ 
hood of falt-water, which feems almolt elfential to its well¬ 
being. The flefli is rather unfavoury, though the eggs 
have at all times been thought very good. 
4. The fpectabilis, has a conmreiled bill gibbous at the 
bale, a black feathery carina, and a hoary head. It is the 
grey-headed duck of Edwards, and the king-duck of Pen¬ 
nant. This beautiful fpecies is found at Hudfon’s Bay, 
at Churchill River, and at York Fort ; in winter it is met 
with us far fouth as New York. It is pretty .frequent in 
the north of Siberia and Kamtfchatka ; it is found alfo on 
the coalt of Norway, and has been killed in the Orkneys. 
It is common in Greenland ; where the flelh is accounted 
excellent, and the crude gibbous part of* the bill a great 
delicacy. It produces a do a n equally valuable as the eider. 
The Ikins are fewed together, and make warm garments. 
The natives kill them with darts, and ufe the following 
method to fucceed : A number of men in canoes, falling 
in with a flock while fwimming, on a hidden let up a 
Ihouting, making as much noile as they can; on which, 
the birds being too much frightened to fly away, dive un¬ 
der the water; but, as the place at which they are to rife 
again is known by the bubbling of the water above, the 
the hunters follow them up as clofe as poffible ; and, af¬ 
ter adting this three or four times over, the birds become 
fo fatigued as to be eafxly killed. This fpecies builds on 
the tides of ponds and rivers, making its nelt of flicks and 
mofs, and lining it with feathers from the bread. It lays 
four or five whitifh eggs, as large as thofe of the goofe. 
The young fly in July. The food conlifts chiefly of worms 
and grafs. 
5. The fufea, qr velvet duck, is of a blackilh colour* 
has a white fpot behind the eyes, and a white line on the 
wings. The male of this fpecies is diftinguilhed by a gib- 
bolity at the bafe of the bill. It is the black duck of 
Ray* and is in length about twenty inches. This fpecies 
frequents Hudfon’s Bay in dimmer, where it breeds. The 
nelt is compofed of grals; in which it lays from four to 
fix white eggs, and hatches in July. It feeds on grafs, 
and is known by the name of cus cufi qua turn. It retires 
fouth in winter, when it is frequently feen as far as New 
York. Our Lite navigators met with it at Aoonalalhka, 
It is now and then feen on the coalts of England, but it 
«a., 4. 
