ANAS, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Anseres. The bill in this genus is strong, broad, flat or depressed, and commonly furnished at the end with an additional piece termed a nail, the edges of the mandibles marked with sharp teeth ; nostrils small, oval ; tongue broad, edges near the base fring toes four, three before and one be hind, the middle one the longest. Ac. cording to Latham, there are 98 species, besides varieties ; but Gmelin gives about 120 species.
From the swan downward to the teal, they are all a clean-plumaged beautiful race of birds, and some of them exquisite ly so. Those which have been reclaimed from a state of nature, and live depen dant on man, are extremely useful to him : under his protection they breed in great abundance, and, without requiring much of his time and care, lead their young to the pool, almost as soon as hatched, where they instantly, with in stinctive perception, begin to search for their food, which at first consists chiefly of weeds, worms, and insects ; those they sift, as it were from the mud, and for that purpose their bills are admirably adapt ed. When they are farther advanced in life, they pick up the sodden scattered grain of the farm-yard, which, but for their assiduous search; ngs, would he lost. To them also are allotted the larger quantities of corn which are shaken by the winds from they er-ripened ears in the fields. On this clean and simple fooek they soon become fat, and their fleshW accounted delicious and nourishing. 'nfn a wild state, birds of various kinds serve their original plumage ; but when tamed, they soon begin to vary, and spew the effects of domestication : is the case with the tame goose and the duck, which differ as much from the wild of their respective kinds, as they do from each other. We shall notice the follow ing, as among the most interesting of the species : Anas Cygnus, the wild swan, measures five feet in length, and above seven in breadth, and weighs from thirteen to six teen pounds. The bill is three inches long, of a yellowish white ; from the base to the middle, and thence to the tip, black ; the bare space from the bill over the eye and eye-bds is yellow : the whole plumage in adult birds is of a pure white, and next to the skin they are clothed with a thick fine down : the legs are black. This species generally keeps to. gether in small flocks, or families, except in the pairing season, and at the setting in of winter. At the latter period they assemble in immense multitudes, parti cularly on the large rivers and lakes nf, the thinly-inhabited northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America : but when the extremity attic weather threatens to become insupportable, in order to shun the gathering storm, they shape their course high in the air, in divided and di. minished numbers, in search of milder climates. In such seasons they are most commonly seen in various parts of the British isles, and in other more southern countries of Europe. The same is ob. served of them in the North American states. They do not, however, remain longer than till the approach of the sprang, when they again retire northward to the arctic regions to breed. A few.
indeed, drop short, and perform that of fice by the way, for they are known to breed in some of the Hebrides, the Ork ney, Shetland, and other solitary isles ; but these are hardly worth notice : the great bodies of them are met with in the large rivers and lakes near Hudson's Bay, and those of Kampschatka, Lapland, and Ice land. They are said to return to the lat
ter place in flocks of about a hundred at a time in the spring, and also to pour in upOn that island from the north, in nearly the same manner, on their way southward, in the autumn. The young which are bred there remain throughout the first year ; and in August, when they are in moult, and unable to fly, the na tives, taking advantage of this, kill them with clubs, shoot, and hunt them down with dogs, by which are easily caught. The flesh is highly esteemed by them as a delicious food, as are also the eggs, which are gathered in the spring. The Icelanders, Kamschatdal es, and other natives of the northern world, dress their skins with the clown on, sew them toge ther, and make them into garments of various kinds : the northern American In (bails do the same, and sometimes weave the down as barbers weave the cauls for wigs, and then manufacture it into orna mental dresses for the women of rank, while the larger feathers are formed into caps and plumes, to decorate the heads of their chiefs and warriors. They also gather the feathers and clown in large quantities, and barter or sell them to the inhabitants of more civilized nations. Much has been said of the singing of the swan, in ancient titnes, and many beautiful and poetical de scriptions have been given of its dying song. No fiction of natural history, no fable of antiquity, was ever more celebrat ed, often repeated, or better received; it occupied the soft and lively imagination of the Greeks ; poets, orators, and even philosophers, adopted it as a truth too pleasing to be doubted. The dull insipid truth, however,is very different from such amiable and affectingfables forthe voice of the swan, singly, is shrill, piercing, and harsh, not unlike the sound of a clarionet when blown by a novice in music. It is, nevertheless, asserted by those who have heard the united and varied voices of a numerous assemblage of them, that they produce a more harmonious effect, parti cularly when softened by the murmur of the waters. At the setting in of frosty weather, the wild swans are said to asso ciate in prodigious multitudes, and, thus united, to use every effort to prevent the water from freezing : this they accomplish by the continual stir kept up amongst them ; and by constantly dashing it with their extended wings, they are enabled to remain as long as it suits their conveni ence, in some favourite part of a lake or river which abounds with their food. The swan is very properly entitled the peace ful monarch of the lake : conscious of his superior strength, he fears no enemy, nor suffers any bird, however powerful, to mo lest him ; neither does he prey upon any one. His vigorous wingis as ashield against the attacks even of the eagle,and the blows from it are said to be so powerful as to stun or kill the fiercest of his foes. The wolf or the fox may surprise him in the dark, but their efforts are vain in the day. His food consists of the grasses and weeds, and the seeds and roots of plants which grow on the margins of the water, and of the myriads of insects which skim over, or float on its surface ; also occasionally of the slimy inhabitants within its bosom. The female makes her nest of the wither ed leaves and stalks of reeds and rushes, and lays commonly six or seven thick shelled white eggs : she is said to sit upon them six weeks before they are hatched. Both male and female are very attentive to their young, and will suffer no to approach them.