280 
The Animal-Lore of Sha'ks'peares Time. 
Sir Thomas Browne also mentions the “ elk, a kind of 
wild swan,” as plentiful in Norfolk in his time. 
Aldrovandus, who wrote about the year 1580, was the 
first to observe the singular bendings of the windpipe in 
the wild swan. He was, however, not aware of the differ¬ 
ence between the wild and the tame varieties of swan, 
and regarded this structure as a confirmation of the old 
opinion that the swan possessed a melodious voice, with 
which, on the approach of death, it sounded its own 
funeral dirge. This fabulous power of singing before 
death, so often noticed by poets, has been dwelt on at 
some length by Mr. Harting. He says ( Ornithology , p. 
202), “ Although the swan has no song , properly so called, 
it has a soft and rather plaintive note, monotonous, but 
not disagreeable.” 
Allusions are sometimes made to a black variety. 
“ Hee is gone to seeke a kayre in a hennes nest, a needle 
in a bottle of kaye, which is as sildome seene as a 
blacke swan ” ( The Two Angrie Women of Abington). “ It 
is as rare to see a rich surety, as a black swan ” (Lyly, 
Eujphues , p. 229). Little did these writers imagine that 
this proverbial rarity would one day be found in as 
great abundance as the common wild swan upon the 
lakes of Europe. “Such,” writes Mr. Bennett, “has 
been one of the many results of the discovery of the 
continent of New Holland ” ( Gardens of the Zoological 
Society). 
Wild Ducks, or Mallards, were so common that no 
description of them is met with. They 
Duck* 1 * 
were evidently, as one author expresses it, 
“ ordained for the purpose ” of hawking. Of Lincolnshire, 
Drayton writes:— 
“ My various fleets for fowl, 0 who is he can tell 
The species that in me for multitudes excel ? 
The duck and mallard first, the falconer’s only sport. 
Of river-flights the chief, so that all other sort, 
