They breed in great abundance, and lead their young to the pool the instant they are excluded.

As their food is simple, so their flesh is nourishing and wholesome. The swan was considered as a high delicacy among the ancients; the goose was abstained from as totally indigestible. Modern manners have inverted tastes; the goose is now become the favourite; and the swan is seldom brought to table, unless for the purpose of ostentation. But at all times the flesh of the duck was in high esteem; the ancients thought even more highly of it than we do. We are contented to eat it as a delicacy; they also considered it as a medicine: and Plutarch assures us, that Cato kept his whole family in health, by feeding them with duck whenever they threatened to be out of order.

So much difference is there between this bird when on land and in the water, that it is hardly to be supposed the same, for in the latter, no bird can possibly exceed it for beauty and majestic appearance. When it ascends from its favourite element, its motions are awkward, and its

neck is stretched forward with an air of stupidity; it has, indeed, the air of being only a larger sort of goose; but when seen smoothly gliding along the water, displaying a thousand graceful attitudes, and moving at pleasure without the smallest apparent effort, there is not a more beautiful figure in all nature. In its form, we find no broken or harsh lines; in its motions, nothing constrained or abrupt, but the roundest contours, and the easiest transitions; the eye wanders over the whole with unalloyed pleasure, and with every change of position every part assumes a new grace. It will swim faster than a man can walk. This bird has long been rendered domestic; and it is now a doubt whether there be any of the tame kind in a state of nature. The colour of the tame Swan is entirely white, and it generally weighs full twenty pounds. Under 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 very different from the wild or whistling Swan.

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The 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 where there is an islet in the stream.

of water plants, long grass, and sticks:

bank, and chiefly This is composed 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 coloured 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 preserved 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, though so strongly resembling this in colour 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 colour of the tame Swan is all over white; that of the wild bird is along the back and the tips of the wings of ash colour; 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.

The BLACK SWAN. 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 colour.

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 GOOSE,

In its domestic state, exhibits a variety of colours. The WILD GOOSE, or GRAY LAG, always retains the same marks: the whole upper part is ash coloured; the breast and belly are of a dirty white; the bill is narrow at the