A. olor, Lin. &c. Tame or Mute Swan. Bill red ; fleshy tubercle at the base and edges of the mandibles black ; the body white. Usual length of the male four feet and three or four inches, and extent of wing about seven feet three inches; weight about twenty-five pounds. The manners and habits of both species in the wild state are very similar.
The beauty, graceful motion, and majesty of the swan, when wafted along a piece of water, attract the admiration of every beholder, and have not passed unnoticed by the poets ; but, out of the liquid clement, the elegance of its form, and the placid dignity of its movements, entirely vanish. While the parent birds are busied with the care of the young brood, one should approach them with cau tion; for they will fly on a stranger, and inflict on hint re peated blows of their wings; yet they are sometimes dis patched by a slight stroke on the head. Multitudes of this species are found in Russia and Siberia, as well as farther south, in an unreclaimed state. They likewise occur, without any owner, on the Trent, on the inlet of the sea near Abbotsbury in Do•setshire, and on some rivers and lakes in different parts of the British isles. Those on the Thames have been for ages protected as royal proper ty; and it is still reckoned felony to steal their eggs. In former times, great numbers were reared for the table ; but they are now reckoned by most a coarse sort of food. A fattened cygnet, however, is still accounted a great de licacy, and usually fetches upwards of a guinea in the poultry market. When rearing their young; or during frost, these birds should be allowed an extra quantity of food ; and they will eat oats with great avidity. Twice a year they arc stripped of their down and quills, the latter of which are preferred even to those of the goose for writing. It is generally believed that the swan lives to a great age, although the term of three centuries, assigned to it by some writers, is doubtless much exaggerated. The female nestles among the rough herbage near the water's edge, lays from six to eight large white eggs, and sits upon them about six weeks. The young do not ac quire their full plumage till the second year. If kept out of the water, and confined to a court-yard, they become dirty, dull, and spiritless. In their favourite element they regularly wash and clean their feathers every day, adjust ing their whole plumage with their bill, and squirting water on their back and wings with the most assiduous at tention.
C. Ducks.
Bill much depressed, broad towards the extremity; the serratures long and flat ; the hind toe detached and unwebbed, or with the rudiments of a free membrane.
They are partial to a watery residence, and both swim and dive.
a. IVith the hind toe without a membrane.
tadorna, Lin. rxe. Sheldrake, or Shieldrake. Prov, Burrow Duck, Skeel Goose, Sly Goose, &c. Bill turn
ing up at the tip ; forehead compressed ; head greenish black ; body variegated with white. Length about twen ty-two inches, extent of wing three feet and a half, and weight about two pounds and a half. The female is smaller, and less lively in her colours ; and the young, preci ously to their first moult, differ considerably in appear ance from the parent birds. The trachea of the male is furnished with a singular labyrinth, consisting of two roundish bladders, of a most delicate texture, and one of them larger than the other.
This species is dispersed, in greater or smaller num bers, over the warm as well as the cold countries, being met with as far north as Iceland in the spring, and Swe den and the Orkney islands in winter. Navigators have observed it on the coast of Van Dieman's Land, and abun dantly at the Falkland Isles. In some districts of our shores it remains all the year, being partial to the margin, of the sea, and breeding in rabbit burrows on the downs, and sometimes in crevices of the rocks, without making any nest. The female lays from ten to sixteen round and whitish eggs, which she covers with down from her own breast, scarcely inferior in fineness to that of the eider duck. During the incubation, which lasts thirty days, the male performs the part of a vigilant sentinel near the breeding stations, retiring only occasionally, when impel led by hunger, to procure subsistence. The female also leaves the nest on the same errand in the morning and evening, when the male takes her place. As soon as the young are hatched, or able to waddle along, they are con ducted, and sometimes carried in the bill, by the parents to the sea during full tide, which shortens their journey, and are committed to the waters; nor are they afterwards seen out of flood-mark until they are able to fly, instinctively feeding on sand-hoppers, marine insects and worms, small testacea, the minute fry of fish, &c. If the family, in their march to the sea, happen to be interrupted by any person, the young ones squat down, and the parents fly off; the mother drops down at a little distance from them, and counterfeits lameness, to divert the intruder's attention, trailing herself along the ground, and flapping with her wings. The male also has been known to have recourse to a similar stratagem. 'I he sheldrakes are generally found only in pairs, which appear to be attached by the closest tics of affection. Although they preferably haunt the sea-shore, they occasionally stray to inland lakes, and, with a little care, they have been tamed, and reared in ponds; and there are instances of their breeding with the common duck. Their flesh has a rank flavour ; but the eggs are in great request. When hatched under a hen • 'the young become tame; but they seldom breed in con finenient.