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We must now take leave of Europe for the present, and beg our readers to change the scene to America.

The swan, Cygnus olor, is so interwoven with ancient lore, especially that of our own islands, that it deserves a chapter, and, wind and weather permitting, shall have it.

"Dissection," says Mr. Yarrell," which proved the distinction between the hooper and Bewick's swan, has also proved that the true wild swans of North America are peculiar to that country, and distinct from the two European swans.

4. Of the American swans, the largest-it is larger than our hooper -is the Trumpeter Swan, or Hunter's Swan, Cygnus buccinator, the -Keetchee wapeeshew of the Cree Indians.

The bill of this species bears a close resemblance to that of the hooper in form; but that organ, as well as the cere and legs, is entirely black. The reddish-orange tinge of the forehead is, generally, the only exception to the pure white of the plumage: some specimens, indeed (younger birds probably), have the crown and cheeks of a bright chesnut. The total length of the bird may be stated as nearly seven feet. Seventy inches is given as the total length of one, and twenty-six inches as that of its wing by Dr. Richardson.

Lawson in his "Natural History of Carolina" (1714), says:

"Of the swans we have two sorts; the one we call Trompeters, because of a sort of trompeting noise they make. These are the largest sort we have, which come in great flocks in the winter, and stay commonly in the fresh rivers till February, that the spring comes on, when they go to the lakes to breed. A cygnet, that is, a last year's swan, is accounted a delicate dish, as indeed it is. They are known by their head and feathers, which are not so white as old birds."

Dr. Richardson observes, that a fold of the windpipe in this swan enters a protuberance on the dorsal or anterior aspect of the sternum at its upper part, which is wanting both in Cygnus ferus and Cygnus Bewickii, in other respects the wind pipe is, he says, distributed through the sternum, nearly as it is in the latter of these species. The curious reader will find this part of the organization well described and figured in the seventeenth volume of the "Transactions of the Linnæan Society."

Whatever associations the Icelanders may have combined with the notes of the hooper, Hearne rejoiced not at those of the trumpeter. "I have heard them," says he, "in serene evenings, after sunset, make a noise not very unlike that of a French horn, but entirely divested of every note that constituted melody, and often been sorry that it did not forbode their death!" and yet these cacophonous Keetchee wapeeshews are the harbingers of the geese, whose advent is anxiously watched for in the fur countries, and hailed with exceedingly great joy by the Indians of the wood and swamp, whose summer, or rather spring manna, the geese are.

The trumpeter swans are stated by Dr. Richardson, to breed as far south as latitude 61°, but principally within the arctic circle. Great flights of them come sweeping down the valley of the Mississippi as the winter approaches, with their hoarse unearthly music sounding like the horns of the wild chase in the air in the Freyschutz.

If this be the species which Hearne alludes to, and there can be little or no doubt that it is, their rapidity when going down wind must be excessive.

"In a brisk gale," says he, "they cannot fly at a less rate than a hundred miles an hour, but when flying across the wind or against it, they make but a slow progress, and are then a noble shot."

Again, he declares that it is "frequently necessary to take sight ten or twelve feet before their bills;" but this was in the good old slow flint and steel times, and long before the days of copper caps and cartridges. When, however, a sportsman had knocked one over,-with what a thump a wild swan, when killed clean, comes down!—he had something besides the satisfaction of the shot. The bird itself is described by Hearne as "excellent eating, and when roasted, is equal in flavour to young heifer-beef, and the cygnets are very delicate," and then there were the quill-feathers and the soft plumage.

Most of the swan-down which comforts whilst it adorns our fair countrywomen is the spoil of the trumpeter, from which the Hudson's Bay Company principally derive their importation of swan

skins.

5. Dr. Sharpless has described the second species of swan peculiar to America, in the "American Journal of Science and Arts," where an account of it will be found under the name of Cygnus Americanus. Mr. Audubon subsequently gave a very good description of it in the fifth volume of his highly interesting "Ornithological Biography.'

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This evidently is the swan alluded to by Lawson in the following passage:

"The sort of swans called hoopers are the least. They abide more in the salt water, and are equally valuable for food with the former. It is observable that neither of these have a black piece of horny flesh down the head and bill as they have in England."

Cygnus Americanus resembles Bewick's swan in some respects internally as well as externally. The total length ascribed to it is four feet six inches, and the weight is stated as twenty-one pounds. Thus it almost equals the European hooper in size, and has apparently been mistaken for it by authors generally.

Nuttall in his pleasant little book* makes the American swans consist of the trumpeter, the wild, or whistling swan (Cygnus ferus), and Bewick's swan. Dr. Richardson notices the trumpeter and Bewick's swan only.

6. When Juvenal wrote the often quoted hundred and sixty-fourth line of his bitter sixth satire, little did he or his readers think that the time would come when a country would be discovered occupying a space upon the globe almost coextensive with the empire under which he flourished, where the swans would be black instead of white, and where the rarity would be to find one of the latter hue.

Witsen's letter to Dr. Martin Lister giving an account of the transmission of this Plutonian swan to Europe appears in the "Philosophical Transactions" and a pair were brought alive to Batavia in 1726 as Valentyn has related. Cook, Vancouver, Phillip, White, Labillardière, and D'Entrecasteaux, the latter, during his search for the unfor* "A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada." 2 vols. 8vo. Boston 1834.

tunate La Pérouse, all mention it, and of these D'Entrecasteaux enters into a comparatively particular description of this remarkable bird, no longer uncommon, and breeding in captivity like its white congeners among the

Penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos,

who now possess a much more ample share of that very world than ever the Romans did.

So familiar is the black swan (Cygnus atratus), that it hardly becomes necessary to describe it, but as its white brethren have been pourtrayed with the pen as well as our hand would permit, some account of this species will be expected.

In form, the black swan is not unlike the white swans of Europe and America, but in size it is somewhat less. The black plumage is only relieved by the small portion of white which the primary and some of the secondary quills show.

The bright red upper mandible is banded with white anteriorly, and at its base, in the male, there is often a light tubercle, which is wanting in the female. The lower mandible is grayish white. The legs and feet are of a dull ash colour. The cygnets, when they are about a fortnight old, are clothed in a down which, above, is of a dusky gray colour, but lighter on the under parts; their little bill, eyes, and feet are dusky black.

Lieutenant-colonel Collins in his account of the English colony in New South Wales, abstracted from the journal of Mr.Bass (1802), states that the Norfolk, after leaving Furneaux's islands, proceeded towards the north coast of Van Diemen's Land, and on the 1st of November anchored for a tide at the largest of the "Swan Isles," two small islands so named by Lieutenant Flinders, when he was there in the Francis, because an European who belonged to Sydney Cove, had assured him that he had met with vast numbers of breeding swans there. The island at which the sloop anchored was low, sandy, and barren.

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Notwithstanding the information given by the European," says Colonel Collins, "not a single swan was found upon the island, but several geese were breeding there, and the sooty petrel possessed the grassy parts; the swans of the sailor, in this instance therefore, turned out to be geese. This bird had been seen before upon Preservation Island, and was either a Brent or a Barnacle goose, or between the two. It had a long and slender neck, with a small short head, and a rounded crown, a short, thick arched bill, partly covered with a peagreen membrane, which soon shrivelled up and came away in the dried specimens. Its plumage was, for the most part, of a dove colour, set with black spots. It had a deep, hoarse, clanging, and, though a short, yet an inflected voice. In size, it was rather less than our tame geese, and lived upon grass. The flesh was excellent."

There can be no doubt that these birds were of the species since described under the name of Cereopsis Nova Hollandia and which has bred for some years in this country. There is, however, some excuse for the sailor, for this New Holland goose is not without something of a swanlike appearance.

The Norfolk afterwards proceeded to Port Dalrymple, and Mr. Bass had an opportunity of observing a portion of the country situated

within an angle formed by two chains of mountains, and, more especially, those parts which lay contiguous to the river, which they examined up to the point where it had become half fresh, half salt; although its breadth was from half a mile to a mile and a half, and its depth eight or nine fathoms. The few rocky shores of the river presented nothing remarkable. The great gray kangaroo abounded in the open forest, and the brushes were tenanted by the smaller black kind, the wal-li-bah of the Port Jackson natives. The plumage of the Psittacidæ, near the settlement, is rich in colour and lustre, but here the garb of the parrots, as if to be in keeping with the gloomy colour of the swans, was remarkably sombre, and there only wanted the melancholy toll of the bell-bird-Dil Boong of the natives, which seemed to be unknown in this spot-joined to the mournful aspect of the feathered bipeds, to make the funereal scene complete.

Many water-birds swam or waded about the arms and coves of the river; but the black swans alone were remarkable in point of number. Mr. Bass once made a rough calculation of three hundred swimming within the space of a quarter of a mile square; "and heard," says Colonel Collins, "the dying song of some scores-that song so celebrated by the poets of former times, exactly resembled the creaking of a rusty sign on a windy day. Not more than two-thirds of any of the flocks which they fell in with could fly, the rest could do no more than flap along upon the surface of the water, being either moulting or not yet come to their full feather and growth, which they require two years to attain. They swam and flapped alternately, and went along surprisingly fast. It was sometimes a long chase, but the boat generally tired them out. When in danger, and speed makes no part of their escape, they immerse their bodies so far, that the water makes a passage between their neck and back, and in this position they would frequently turn aside a heavy load of shot. They seemed to be endowed with much sagacity; in chase they soon learned the weakest point of their pursuers, and, instead of swimming directly from them, as they did at first, always endeavoured in the most artful manner to gain the wind, which could only be prevented by anticipating their movements, and by a dexterous management of the boat.'

This last manoeuvre of the persecuted swans looks very like the result of reflection, when contrasted with their actions before bitter experience had taught them to put their wit to their enemies, and may be added to the numerous instances on record, which prove that the reasoning faculty, as well as instinct, is possessed by animals, at least to a certain extent.

"This swan," continues our author, " is said to feed upon fish, frogs, and water-slugs; but in the gizzards of many, that at different times, and in different places, were examined by Mr. Bass, nothing ever appeared but small water-plants, mostly a kind of broad-leaved grass, and some little sand. To their affection for their young, he had seen some lamentable sacrifices; but of their fierceness, at least when opposed to man, or their great strength, he had seen no instance."

A pair of these birds were with great care brought alive to England in the Buffalo, which arrived at Spithead in May, 1801, and were given by Lieut. William Kent to Earl St. Vincent, who presented them to Queen Charlotte, by whom they were sent to Frogmore. They were

of different sexes; but the female, unfortunately, died in moulting, and the widower having recovered, together with his health, the complete use of his wings, which had not been cut, availed himself of the liberty he enjoyed, and was shot by a nobleman's gamekeeper as he was flying

across the Thames.

In Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales, and New Holland, the black swans have generally been seen in herds of eight or nine, floating quietly on some lake or pool. When flushed, they go off in a straight line, one behind the other; and when in full plumage, or not detained by parental affection, are difficult of approach, seldom suffering the sportsman to come within gun-shot. Their disposition seems to be mild, and they are no match for the violent temper of the mute swan, Cygnus olor, as those who may think it worth while to look at our sketch of that species in a future number, will find.

Here then we must, for the present, take our leave, with an admonition to those "gunners" or "punt-shooters" who go after the wild fowl in England or America, by night, to take warning from Jemmy Randall's shot, immortalized in an ancient Irish ballad, not known, we will venture to say, to many of our readers, and intituled

MALLY BANN.

1.

Jemmy Randall went a shooting,

A shooting in the dark;
But to his great misfortune,
He did not miss his mark.

2.

His love's apron being about her,
He took her for a swan ;
But alas! and for ever, alas!
It was sweet Mally Bann.

3.

When he came up unto her,

And found that she was dead,
Great abundance of salt tears
For his darling he shed.

4.

He went home to his father

With his gun in his hand,

Crying, "Dear father, dear father,
I've shot Mally Bann."

5.

His father looked upon him
(His hair being gray)

Crying, "Oh! my dearest son,

You must not run away:

6.

"Stay at home in your own country—

Let your trial come on;

By the laws of sweet Ireland,

You shall never be undone."

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