scarcely deserve our regard. The swan, therefore, must be content with that share of fame which it possesses on the score of its beauty; since the melody of its voice, without better testimony, will scarcely be admitted by even the credulous.

This beautiful bird is as delicate in its appetites, as 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. 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 eggs, white, much larger than those of a goose, with a hard, and sometimes a tuberous shell. It sits near two months 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 round them. Their fears, as well as their pride, seem to take the alarm; and they have sometimes been known to give a blow with their pinion, that has broke a man's leg or arm.

It is not till they are a twelvemonth old that the young swans change their colour with their plumage. All the stages of this bird's approach to maturity are slow, and seem to mark its longevity. It is two months hatching; a year in growing to its proper size; and if, according to Pliny's observation, that those animals that are longest in the womb are the longest lived, the swan is the longest in the shell of any bird we know, and is said to be remarkable for its longevity. Some say that it lives three hundred years; and Willoughby, who is in general diffident enough, seems to believe the report. A goose, as he justly observes, has been known to live a hundred;

and the swan, from its superior size, and from its harder firmer flesh, may naturally be supposed to live still longer.

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 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 but little valued for the delicacy of their flesh, but many are still preserved for their beauty. We see multitudes on the Thames and Trent; but no where greater numbers than on the salt water inlet of the sea near Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE GOOSE, AND ITS VARIETIES.

THE Goose, in its domestic state, exhibits a variety of colours. The wild goose 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 base, and at the tip it is black; the legs are of a saffron colour, and the claws black. These marks are seldom found in the tame, whose bill is entirely red, and whose legs are entirely brown. The wild goose is rather less than the tame; but both invariably retain a white ring round their tail, which shows that they are both descended from the same original.

The wild goose is supposed to breed in the northern parts of Europe, and in the beginning of winter to descend into more temperate regions. They are

often seen flying at very great heights, in flocks from fifty to a hundred, and seldom resting by day. Their cry is frequently heard when they are at an imperceptible distance above us; and this seems bandied from one to the other, as among hounds in the pursuit. Whether this be the note of mutual encouragement, or the necessary consequence of respiration, is doubtful; but they seldom exert it when they alight in these journeys.

Upon their coming to the ground by day, they range themselves in a line like cranes; and seem rather to have descended for rest than for other refreshment. When they have sate in this manner for an hour or two, I have heard one of them, with a loud long note, sound a kind of charge, to which the rest punctually attended; and they pursued their journey with renewed alacrity. Their flight is very regularly arranged; they either go in a line abreast, or in two lines, joining in an angle in the middle. I doubt whether the form of their flight be thus arranged to cut the air with greater ease, as is commonly believed; I am more apt to think it is to present a smaller mark to fowlers from below. A bullet might easily reach them if huddled together in a flock, and the same discharge might destroy several at once; but by their manner of flying no shot from below can affect above one of them; and from the height at which they fly, this is not easy to be hit.

The Barnacle differs in some respects from both these; being less than either, with a black bill, much shorter than either of the preceding. It is scarcely necessary to combat the idle error of this bird's being bred from a shell sticking to ships' bottoms; it is well known to be hatched from an egg in the ordinary manner, and to differ in very few particulars from all the rest of its kind.

The Brent goose is still less than the former, and

not bigger than a Muscovy duck, except that the body is longer. The head, neck, and upper part of the breast, are black; about the middle of the neck, on each side, are two small spots or lines of white, which together appear like a ring.

These, and many other varieties, are found in this kind; which agree in one common character of feeding upon vegetables, and being remarkable for their fecundity. Of these, however, the tame goose is the most fruitful. Having less to fear from its enemies, leading a securer and a more plentiful life, its prolific powers increase in proportion to its ease; and though the wild goose seldom lays above eight eggs, the tame goose is often seen to lay above twenty. The female hatches her eggs with great assiduity; while the gander visits her twice or thrice a-day and sometimes drives her off to take her place, where he sits with great state and composure.

But beyond that of all animals is his pride when the young are excluded: he seems then to consider himself as a champion not only obliged to defend his young, but also to keep off the suspicion of danger: he pursues dogs and men that never attempt to molest him; and though the most harmless thing alive, is then the most petulant and provoking. When, in this manner, he has pursued the calf or the mastiff, to whose contempt alone he is indebted for safety, he returns to his female and her brood in triumph, clapping his wings, screaming, and showing all the marks of conscious superiority. It is probable, however, these arts succeed in raising his importance among the tribe where they are displayed; and it is probable there is not a more respectable animal on earth to a goose than a gander!

A young goose is generally reckoned very good eating; yet the feathers of this bird still farther increase its value. I feel my obligations to this animal

every word I write; for, however deficient a man's head may be, his pen is nimble enough upon every occasion: it is happy indeed for us, that it requires no great effort to put it in motion. But the feathers of this bird are still as valuable in another capacity, as they make the softest and the warmest beds to sleep on.

Of goose feathers most of our beds in Europe are composed; in the countries bordering on the Levant, and in all Asia, the use of them is utterly unknown. They there use mattresses, stuffed with wool, or camel's hair, or cotton; and the warmth of their climate may perhaps make them dispense with cushions of a softer kind.. But how it happens that the ancients had not the use of feather-beds, is to me surprising: Pliny tells us, indeed, that they made bolsters of feathers to lay their heads on; and this serves as a proof that they turned feathers to no other uses.

As feathers are a very valuable commodity, great numbers of geese are kept tame in the fens in Lincolnshire, which are plucked once or twice a-year. These make a considerable article of commerce. The feathers of Somersetshire are most in esteem; those of Ireland are reckoned the worst. Hudson's Bay also furnishes very fine feathers, supposed to be of the goose kind. The down of the swan is brought from Dantzic. The same place also sends us great quantities of the feathers of the cock and hen; but Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, furnish the best feathers of all: and in this number we may reckon the Eider down, of which we shall take notice in its place. The best method of curing feathers, is to lay them in a room in an open exposure to the sun; and, when dried, to put them into bags, and beat them well with poles to get the dust off. But after all, nothing will prevent, for a time, the heavy smell