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(4 THE NATURAL HISTORY 
MMO ETEY GROR 
pay SWAN. 
The Swan haga black, hai knob at the bate 
 @f his bill; when he grows old, his feathers be- 
come white. Swans lay feven or eight eggs; they 
are two months in hatching. They feed on wa- 
_ter-plants and infects; and will fometimes eat 
grain, ifit be given them. Some people formerly — 
were fo filly, as to imagine that they always fang 
juft before they died; but this is quite a miftake, 
for the tame fwans rapa make any noife at all. 
‘When they are going to lay, they fix upon 2 
lonely bank, or an ifland; and there make their 
~neft, of water-plants, long grafs, and fticks; the 
male and the female both help. When they have 
hatched, it is not very fafe to go near them; for 
their pinions, or wings, are fo ftrong, and they: 
can ftrike fuch a blow with enim as would break 
an arm or a leg. 
The Swan’s neck is very Joins, anid he is a moft 
elegant and majettic bird wheh he is fwimming. 
Many of them are to be found upon the falt water 
creek, or inlet, at Abbotibury, in Dorfetthire ; 
and upon the river Trent, and on the Thames. 
oe hey are faid to live two or three hundred years. 
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