rivers and lakes near Hudson's Bay, and those of Kamtschatka, Lapland, and Iceland. They are said to return to the latter place in flocks of about a hundred at a time, in the spring, and also to pour in upon that island from the north, in nearly the same manner, on their way southward in the autumn. The young which are bred there remain throughout the first year; and in August, when they are in moult, and unable to fly, the natives taking advantage of this, kill them with clubs, shoot, and hunt them down with dogs, by which they are easily caught. The flesh is highly esteemed by them as a delicious food, as are also the eggs, which are gathered in the spring. The Icelanders, Kamtschatdales, and other natives of the northern world, dress their skins with the down on, sew them together, and make them into garments of various kinds: the northern American Indians do the same, and sometimes weave the down as barbers weave the cawls for wigs, and then manufacture it into ornamental dresses for the women of rank, while the larger feathers are formed into caps and plumes to decorate the heads of their chiefs and warriors. They also gather the feathers and down in large quantities, and barter or sell them to the inhabitants of more civilized nations.

Buffon is of opinion that the Tame Swan has been derived originally from the wild species; other naturalists entertain a contrary opinion, which they form chiefly on the difference between them in the singular conformation of the windpipe. Willoughby says, "The windpipe of the Wild Swan, after a strange and wonderful manner enters the breast bone in a cavity prepared for it, and is therein reflected, and after its egress at the

divarication is contracted into a narrow compass by a broad and bony cartilage; then being divided into two branches, goes on to the lungs: these branches before they enter the lungs, are dilated, and as it were swollen out into two cavities." Dr Heysham corroborates the above, and adds, that the Wild Swan, in this particular, differs not only from the Tame Swan, but also from every other bird. The only observable external difference between the two species is in the markings of the bill, (which are figured in the subjoined head) and in the Wild Swan's being of less bulk than the Mute or Tame kind.

Much has been said in ancient times, of the singing of the Swan, and many beautiful and poetical descriptions have been given of its dying song. "No fiction of natural history, no fable of antiquity, was ever more celebrated, oftener repeated, or better received: it occupied the soft and lively imagination of the Greeks; poets, orators, and even philosophers, adopted it as a truth too pleasing to be doubted.” "The dull insipid truth," however, is very different from such amiable and affecting fables, for the voice of the Swan, singly, is shrill, piercing, and harsh, not unlike the sound of a clarionet when blown by a novice in music. It is, however, asserted by those who have heard the united and varied voices of a numerous assemblage of them, that they produce a more harmonious effect, particularly when softened by the murmur of the waters.

At the setting in of frosty weather, the Wild Swans are said to associate in prodigious multitudes, and thus united, to use every effort to prevent the water from freezing: this they accomplish by the continual stir kept up amongst them; and by constantly dashing it with

their extended wings, they are enabled to remain as long as it suits their convenience, in some favourite part of a lake or river which abounds with their food.

The Swan is very properly entitled the peaceful Monarch of the Lake: conscious of his superior strength, he fears no enemy, nor suffers any bird, however powerful, to molest him; neither does he prey upon any one. His vigorous wing is as a shield against the attacks even of the Eagle, and the blows from it are said to be so powerful as to stun or kill the fiercest of his foes. The Wolf or the Fox may surprise him in the dark, but their efforts are vain in the day. His food consists of the grasses and weeds, and the seeds and roots of plants, which grow on the margins of the water, and of the myriads of insects which skim over, or float on its surface; also occasionally of the slimy inhabitants within its bosom.

The female makes her nest of the withered leaves and stalks of reeds and rushes, and lays commonly six or seven thick-shelled white eggs: she is said to sit upon them six weeks before they are hatched. Both male and female are very attentive to their young, and will suffer no enemy to approach them.

THE plumage of this species is of the same snowy whiteness as that of the Wild Swan, and the bird is covered next the body with the same kind of fine close down; but it greatly exceeds the Wild Swan in size, weighing about twenty-five pounds, and measuring more in the length of the body and extent of the wings. This also differs in being furnished with a projecting, callous, black tubercle, or knob, on the base of the upper mandible, and in the colour of the bill, which in this is red,

with black edges and tip: the naked skin between the bill and the eyes is also of the latter colour: in the Wild Swan this bare space is yellow.

The manners and habits are much the same in both kinds, particularly when they are in a wild state; for indeed this species cannot properly be called domesticated; they are only as it were partly reclaimed from a state of nature, and invited by the friendly and protecting hand of man to decorate and embellish the artificial lakes and pools which beautify his pleasure grounds. On these the Swan cannot be accounted a captive, for he enjoys all the sweets of liberty. Placed there, as he is the largest of all the British birds, so is he to the eye the most pleasing and elegant. What in nature can be more beautiful than the grassy-margined lake, hung round with the varied foliage of the grove, when contrasted with the pure resplendent whiteness of the majestic Swan, wafted along, with erected plumes, by the gentle breeze, or floating, reflected on the glossy surface of the water, while he throws himself into numberless graceful attitudes, as if desirous of attracting the admiration of the spectator?

The Swan, although possessed of the power to rule, yet molests none of the other water birds, and is singularly social and attentive to those of his own family, which he protects from every insult. While they are employed with the cares of the young brood, it is not safe to approach near them, for they will fly upon any stranger, whom they often beat to the ground by repeated blows; and they have been known by a stroke of the wing to break a man's leg. But, however powerful they are with their wings, yet a slight blow on the head will kill them.