the feathers is a very thick, soft down, which is made an article of commerce, for purposes of both use and ornament. The windpipe sinks down into the lungs in the ordinary manner; and it is the most silent of all the feathered tribe; it can do nothing more than hiss, which it does on receiving*· any provocation. In these respects, it is very different from the wild or whistling swan.

This beautiful bird is as delicate in its appetites as it is elegant in its form. Its chief food is corn, bread, herbs growing in the water, and roots and seeds, which are found near the margin. At the time of incubation, it prepares a nest in some retired part of the bank, and chiefly where there is an islet in the stream. This is composed of water plants, long grass, and sticks; and the male and female assist in forming it with great assiduity. The swan lays seven or eight white eggs, one every other day, much larger than those of a goose, with a hard, and sometimes a tuberous shell. It sits six weeks before its young are excluded; which are ash colored when they first leave the shell, and for some months after. It is not a little dangerous to approach the old ones, when their little family are feeding around them. Their fears as well as their pride, seem to take the alarm, and, when in danger, the old birds carry off the young ones on their back. A female has been known to attack and drown a fox, which was swimming towards her nest; they are able to throw down and trample on youths of fifteen or sixteen; and an old swan can break the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing. Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in England, that, by an act of Edward the Fourth, none, except the son of the king, was permitted to keep a swan, unless possessed of a freehold to the value of five marks a year. By a subsequent act, the punishment for taking their eggs was imprisonment for a year and a day, and a fine at the king's will. At present, they are not valued for the delicacy of their flesh; but numbers are still pre

served for their beauty. Many may be seen on the Thames, where they are esteemed royal property, and it is accounted felony to steal their eggs. On this river, as far as the conservancy of it belongs to the city of London, they are under the care of the corporation; and at certain times the lord mayor, aldermen, &c. proceed up the Thames, to what is commonly called the swan hopping, to mark the young birds. The swan is a long-lived bird, and sometimes attains the age of more than a hundred years.

THE WILD OR WHISTLING SWAN,1

THOUGH SO Strongly resembling the tame swan in color and form, is yet a different bird; for it is very differently formed within. The wild swan is less than the tame, almost a fourth; for as the one weighs twenty pounds, the other only weighs sixteen pounds and three quarters. The color of the tame swan is all over white; that of the wild bird is along the back and the tips of the wings of an ash color; the tame swan is mute, the wild one has a sharp loud cry, particularly while flying. But these are slight differences, compared to what are found upon dissection. The wild species is found in most of the northern regions, in America, and probably in the East Indies.

New Holland, that country of animal wonders, presents us with a bird which the ancients imagined could not possibly have existence. The black

swan is exactly similar in its form to the swan of the old world, but is somewhat smaller in size. Every part of its plumage is perfectly black, with the exception of the primary and a few of the secondary quill feathers, which are white. The bill is of a bright red above, is crossed at the anterior part by a whitish band; is of a grayish white on the under part; and, in the male, is surmounted at the base by a slight protuberance. The legs and feet are of a dull ash color. Black swans, in their wild state, are extremely shy. They are found in Van Dieman's Land, New South Wales, and on the western coast of New Holland; and are generally seen swimming on a lake, in flocks consisting of eight or nine individuals. On being disturbed, they fly off in a direct line one after the other, like wild geese.

THE EIDER DUCKI

Has a black, cylindrical bill, and the feathers of the forehead and cheeks advance far into the base. In the male, the feathers of part of the head, the lower part of the breast, the belly and the tail, are black, as are also the quill feathers of the wings; and nearly all the rest of the body is white. The legs are green. The female is of a reddish brown, variously marked with black and dusky streaks. It is principally found in the western isles of Scotland, on the coasts of Norway, Iceland and Greenland, and in many parts of North America.

The female lays from three to five eggs, (sometimes as many as eight,) which are large, smooth, glossy, and of a pale olive color. She generally

lays among stones, or plants, near the sea, but in a soft bed of down, which she plucks from her own breast. Sometimes two females will lay their eggs in the same nest, in which case they always agree remarkably well. As long as the female is sitting, the male continues on watch near the shore; but as soon as the young are hatched, he leaves them. The mother, however, remains with them a considerable time afterwards. It is curious to observe her manner of leading them out of the nest, almost as soon as they creep from the eggs. Going before them to the shore, they trip after her; and, when she comes to the water-side, she takes them on her back, and swims a few yards with them, when she dives; and the young ones are left floating on the surface, obliged to take care of themselves. They are seldom seen afterwards on land.

In Iceland, the eider ducks generally build their nests on small islands, not far from the shore; and sometimes even near the dwellings of the natives, who treat them with so much attention and kindness as to render them nearly tame. From these birds is produced the soft down, so well known by the name of the eider, or edder down, which is so light and expansive that a couple of handfuls will fill a down quilt, which, in cold countries, is used instead of a quilt or blanket. In the breeding season, the birds pluck it from their breasts to line their nests, and make a soft bed for the young ones. When the natives come to the nests, they carefully remove the female and take away the superfluous down and eggs; after this, they replace the female; she then begins to lay afresh, and covers her eggs with new down, which she also plucks from her body; when this is scarce, or she has no more left, the male come to her assistance, and covers the eggs with his down, which is white, and easily distinguished from that of the female. When the young ones leave the nest, which is about an hour after they are hatched, it is once more plundered. The most eggs and best down are got during the first three weeks of their laying; and it has generally been observed, that they lay the greatest number of eggs in rainy weather. One female, during the time of laying generally gives half a pound of down; which, however, is reduced one half after it is cleaned. The Iceland company at Copenhagen generally export from Iceland about one thousand five hundred or two thousand pounds weight of this down, besides what is privately purchased by foreigners.

The Greenlanders kill these birds with darts; pursuing them in their little boats, watching their course by the air bubbles when they dive, and always striking them when they rise to the surface wearied. The flesh is valued as food, and their skins are made into warm and comfortable under garments.

THIS is the smallest bird of the duck kind; it is common in England in the winter months; and some imagine that it breeds there as well as it does in France. It does not usually weigh more than twelve ounces; and it measures about sixteen inches from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail, and from the extremity of each wing, when extended, nearly two feet. The bill is of a dark brown color, the head is considerably lighter, inclining to a bay, with a large white stripe over each eye, bending downwa is, wards the back part of the head; the back and sides under the wings are curiously varied with lines of white and black. The breast is of dirty colored yellow, interspersed with dusky transverse lines; the belly more bright, with yellowish brown spots; the quill feathers of the wings are of a dusky brown, with white edges; the covert feathers appear of fine shining green, with their tips white; the scapular feathers are more inclining to an ash color; the legs and feet are brown, the claws black. These birds feed on cresses, chervil, and other weeds, and also on seeds and some kinds of water insects. The flesh is a great delicacy, and has a less fishy taste than any other of the wild duck tribe.

The female constructs her nests of reeds interwoven with grass, and is said to make it among rushes, that it may rise or fall with the varying height of the water.

THE WIDGEON.2

THIS bird weighs about twenty-two ounces; it has a black nail at the end of the upper mandible of the bill, the other part of which is of a lead color; the structure of the head and mouth very much resembles the common wild duck, only the head does not seem to be quite so large, in propor