Puslapio vaizdai
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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.

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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.

No people rejoice more on the return of the Wild Swan to their dreary realms than the Icelanders. Independently of their being indications of the advance of spring, these birds supply the natives with down and feathers, which are of great value, not only for domestic comfort, but as an article of barter. The Swan-hunt takes place in the month of August, at which time the old birds are unable to fly, having cast their quill-feathers. The natives then assemble in bodies, and proceed to the morasses and resorts of the Swan, " attended by dogs, and mounted upon small but active horses, trained to pass over bogs and through marshy soil; the chase then commences, and many are ridden down; but the greater number are caught by the dogs, which always seize the neck, a mode of attack that causes the bird to lose its balance and become an easy prey."

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.

2 1. TAME SWAN.

2. WILD SWAN.

3

3. BEWICK'S SWAN.

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 twothirds are yellow. This difference in the bills of the Tame and Wild Swan serves at once to distinguish them. But the difference does not end here. The number of ribs is twelve on each side; and the trachea, as the

following rough sketch shows, instead of entering at once into the chest, passes into a cavity in the keel of the

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

breast-bone, and so proceeding for a considerable distance, turns upwards abruptly, and is again inflected over the edge of the breast-bone before penetrating into the chest. In our sketch the keel of the sternum is opened so as to expose the convoluted course of the trachea, of which c is the inferior larynx; D the bronchi, which are particularly large; A the furcula, or merry-thought; в the keel of the sternum.

3. Bewick's Swan, (Cygnus Bewicki.) This bird can only be confounded with the preceding, but is to be distinguished by the following points. The general size is a fourth less; and the bill is more duck-like, being thicker, shorter, and higher at the base, where it joins the forehead; and the black extends over a greater space, (nearly two-thirds,) so as to include the nostrils. As it regards internal structure, the similarity is as striking as between the bills, though there is still a decided difference. The trachea is of smaller calibre, and passes more deeply into the keel of the breast-bone; and the bronchi or subdivisions are less than half the length of the same parts in the hooper.

Among the Swans we may enumerate a very beautiful species, (Cygnus nigricollis,) from Chili, the Falkland Isles, the Rio del Plata, and other parts of the coast of South America, distinguished by a black neck, which contrasts well with the snowy whiteness of the rest of its plumage. The bill is red, the legs flesh-colour; in size it equals the hooper.

We shall conclude our sketch of the Swans with one which nullifies the proverb of the classical writers of antiquity, who talked of the Black Swan as a bird out of the range of possibility:

"Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno."

JUVENAL.

That " rara avis in terris" is, with many other astonishing productions, a native of New Holland and Van Dieman's Land, where it abounds on the lakes and larger rivers, one of which (Swan River) takes its name from the multitudes which habitually frequent it.

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The BLACK SWAN (Cygnus atratus, BENNETT,) has

all the manners of its European congeners. It is usually seen in small flocks, which are shy and wary. Of late years this elegant bird has been introduced into England, where it thrives and breeds, and will no doubt soon become as common as the tame swan on our ornamental lakes and rivers.

The general colour is perfectly black, with the exception of the primary and a few of the secondary quillfeathers, which are white; the bill is bright red; the legs and feet ash-colour.

The Ducks next demand our notice. They resolve themselves into two very distinct and natural sections: the first of which contains such as feed chiefly on vegetable matter, insects, and the fry of fishes, which they obtain merely by plunging the head and neck into the water, so as to search, by means of the bill, in the mud for their food, but do not dive for it. We may call them the True Ducks. They frequent for the most part fresh waters; the hind toe is free, without a membrane. Their flesh is good.

The second section contains Ducks possessing a gizzard of enormous power, calculated for bruising the shells of marine mollusca, which, with aquatic insects, small fish, and subaquatic plants, form their food. These they obtain by diving down to the bottom of the sea, their habitual resort. The beak is shorter, stouter, and more pointed than in the true Ducks; the neck shorter; the body more compact, the ribs reaching farther backwards so as to enclose the whole of the internal viscera, and

protect them from pressure when at a great depth below

the surface. The hind toe is furnished with a lobed membrane. Their flesh, except that of a few remarkable

species, is rank and unsavoury. We may denominate

them, for distinction's sake, the Diving Ducks.

In both sections the male birds of many species are peculiar for singularities in the structure of the trachea. Many have the tube contracted and dilated at different points, or even furnished with a hollow globe of bone, as in the Velvet Duck. Nor are these peculiarities restricted

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