836 
BIKD-LIFE. 
Hooper. Homer speaks of the song of the Swans, which 
he saw at Kaystros and Feneios, and interprets the same 
as a meed of praise rendered to Apollo. iEschylus first 
makes mention of the Swan singing when dying; and 
Plato affirms that its last song is more joyous than all 
former ones, for it sings, conscious that after death a 
better life is in store for it, and that it will return to the 
God whose servant it is. Aristotle does not doubt the 
truth of this interpretation, hut Pliny does, though 
possibly the latter only observed the Mute Swan. In our 
time we hear nothing further about the singing Swan, 
though the legend still remains, and both it and the bird 
itself are surrounded by a halo of poetry. In the middle 
of the last century Mauduit again speaks of singing 
Swans, which were captured, tamed, and brought to 
Chantilly; and from that time other observers have 
expressed themselves in a similar manner. The Ice¬ 
lander, Olaff, speaks of the song of the Wild Swan 
as being the most beautiful winter music that the 
Norseman possesses ; he likens it to the tones of a violin. 
Faber says that the Swan, when flying in flocks high 
in the air, utters sounds which resemble those of a 
trumpet, when heard at a distance. Pallas speaks most 
enthusiastically of these notes, and compares them to 
those of a pure silver bell: he is the first person who has 
remarked that the death-rattle of a Hooper, when 
mortally wounded, is still musical. Ermar agrees with 
him, and adds that no animal that he is acquainted with 
is capable of producing so pure and clear, so silvery, a 
tone as that of the Wild Swan. Naumann very correctly 
renders the ordinary note of this bird by the syllables, 
“ killkleeh,” and the sound uttered when on the wing by 
u klung W this last he terms the song, and the rustling 
