THE WILD SWAN, OR HOOPER. 
837 
of the wings the accompaniment; thus it is that one only 
hears sounds from Swans when on the wing, resembling 
either bells or the notes of a trumpet, which in this 
manner may be compared to music. “And one may 
reasonably believe,” he adds, “that the airy ring of 
those sad, beautiful notes, uttered, as they are, by the 
passing flock, which -is, so to speak, dying away, may 
have been so termed by the poets in a figurative sense,” 
when speaking of the song of the Wild Swan. Schilling, 
an excellent observer, contradicts him, saying: “In hard 
frosts—when the open waters of the lake are frozen over, 
with the exception of those places where the currents are 
strong, that is to say, the shallower portions which form 
the feeding-grounds of the Hooper—these magnificent 
birds assemble together in hundreds on the open water, 
and in their sad, lovely tones seem to lament over the 
misfortune which deprives them of food; for their 
numberless voices blending together may be heard in the 
long winter evenings, and through the livelong night, for 
miles. Sometimes this rich, harmonious call resembles 
the sound of bells, and at others that of wind-instruments, 
only that they are not quite the same, but surpass them 
in many respects, inasmuch as, proceeding from living 
creatures, they are more in consonance with our feelings 
than those caused by dead metal. This singular song 
verifies in good truth what is only held to be a poetic 
legend, for it is in reality often the death-song of these 
beautiful birds, inasmuch as when swimming on the deep 
water, and unable to obtain their food at the bottom, as 
is their wont, they become so weak from hunger that 
they are incapable of migrating to warmer climes.: then 
they are not unfrequently found frozen to the ice, either 
dead or dying of starvation; but even to the very last they 
utter their sad , clear , melancholy noted 9 
