render it, on the water, a formidable enemy when driven to act on the defensive; and it has been known to give successful combat to animals, and even man, when protecting its young.

The swan makes her nest in the midst of reeds or osiers, near the water, and often on a small island; it is constructed of a mass of twigs or stalks, lined with feathers; the eggs are six or eight in number. The young birds, or cygnets as they are termed, are covered universally with a greyish brown plumage, and do not acquire the white, in its purity, till the beginning of the third

year.

Independent of its superior size, the tame swan is easily distinguished by its beak, which is throughout of an orange red, with the exception of the nail at the tip, the edges of the mandibles, the nostrils, and the naked cere at the base, which extends to the eye and rises in the form of a knob before the forehead. The male measures upwards of five feet, and more than eight in the expanse of wings; the weight is from twenty to twenty-five pounds, and sometimes more. The swan is very long-lived, often attaining to more than thirty years of age.

The beautiful down, so much prized when made up into articles of comfort or elegance, is the under-clothing of the whole of the lower surface of the body and the neck; it is more thin, but not altogether absent, on the back. It cannot be seen when on the living bird, because it is covered by the outer plumage, which consists of large closely set feathers.

Distinguished from the tame swan, not indeed in general habits, but in size and several important anatomical characters, the wild swan, hooper, or whistling swan (Cygnus ferus), may be noticed. A native of nearly the whole of the northern hemisphere, this stately bird is migratory, passing northward as far as the borders of the arctic circle, to breed, and thence returning southward to winter, regulated by the severity of the season. In America, the

emigrations of the wild swan are bounded by Hudson's Bay on the north, and extend southwards as far as Louisiana and the Carolinas. In Europe and Asia, it extends its visits as far as the warmer latitudes, and some pass into the contiguous districts of Africa, especially Egypt.

The hooper may be regarded as a regular winter visitor to the Orkneys and Western Isles of Scotland; but its appearance in England is not so certain, and its migration further southwards is entirely regulated by the severity of the weather. These journeys are performed in flocks of greater or less extent, the numbers being from five to fifty, or more; they take up their abode on lakes, rivers, or inundated fields, and are shy and wary. On the first opening of spring, they wing back their way to their northern breeding places, scattering themselves over Norway, Iceland, Lapland, Spitzbergen, Kamschatka, Siberia, in the Old World, and the high northern lakes in the transatlantic continent.

The down of the hooper or whistling swan is superior to that of the tame species, and forms a valuable article of traffic. Its voice is harsh and discordant, except when heard from large flocks at a distance, so as to fall blended and softened on the ear. It consists of two notes, like the sound of a clarionet attempted by a novice. The hooper is much less graceful than the tame swan; in swimming it is never seen to throw up the plumes of the wings, nor assume any striking attitude, but carries the neck erect, at a right angle with the body, instead of in a sweeping and elegant curve. In size it is inferior to the preceding species, but is much larger than the third European species, of which we shall presently speak.

The flight of the wild swan or hooper is extremely rapid. Hearne asserts that, when going with a brisk gale, "they cannot fly at a less rate than a hundred miles in an hour;" and that, to shoot with any chance of success, aim must be taken "ten or twelve feet

before their bills;" but when flying across the wind or against it, their progress is slow and the shot easy.

The third species is Bewick's swan (Cygnus Bewickii, Yarrell), which has only very recently been discriminated from the hooper, which it closely resembles in form, locality, habits, and manners. We have therefore nothing to add respecting its history to what we have already stated, but shall endeavour to render the grounds of distinction as clear as possible. The following is a sketch of the head of each of the above species.

1. The mute or tame swan (Cygnus olor). The bill is long, depressed; with a black nail, black edges, and nostrils, black cere, and fleshy tuberosity. The trachea passes from the neck into the chest without any convolution, and the number of ribs is eleven on each side.

2. The wild swan, or hooper (Cygnus ferus). We find the bill of the present species destitute of protuberance at its base, and the colours are in a great degree reversed, the base, as far as the eyes, being of a bright yellow, and the point as far as the nostrils (but. not including the nostrils), and sides black; so that two-thirds are yellow. This difference in the bills of the tame and wild swan

serves at once to distinguish them. But the difference does not