CHAPTER VII. 
THE WILD SWAN, OR HOOPER 
(Cygnus musicus). 
“ And mark the Wild Swans mount the gale, 
Spread wide through mist their snowy sail, 
And ever stoop again, to lave 
Their bosoms on the surging wave.” 
Scott. 
A primaeval legend, handed down to us from the 
ancients, has an echo in every language of the civilized 
world. It tells us of an expiring being which met death 
with a song, whose very last breath was melody. Poetry 
has raised this story to the form of fairy tale, and yet 
there is something of truth in the matter. 
The Wild Swan, so gracefully enshrouded in this legend, 
resembles its brother, the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor ), the 
graceful tenant of our ponds and lakes, both in size and 
colour, though differing from it in being more plump of 
form and possessing a shorter neck, as well as the 
absence of the tubercle on the beak, and the number of 
the tail-feathers being less. It is five and a half feet 
long by seven and a half in breath; the female is 
considerably smaller than the male. The plumage is 
snowy white; the beak, orange-yellow at the base, 
otherwise black like the feet. The construction of the 
