. Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting. . s slow and cumbersome. It isfound in Europe, Asia, and America; and in Australia a black swan,for ages the rara avis of the poets, is very abundant. In the wildstate it lives on the lakes, rivers, and sea-coasts of both hemispheres,feeding on such seeds, leaves, roots, water-insects, frogs, and wormsas come in its way. In its domestic state it is the charm and orna-ment of our lakes and rivers; but, except in some few instances, itis only kept for show, being j
. Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting. . s slow and cumbersome. It isfound in Europe, Asia, and America; and in Australia a black swan,for ages the rara avis of the poets, is very abundant. In the wildstate it lives on the lakes, rivers, and sea-coasts of both hemispheres,feeding on such seeds, leaves, roots, water-insects, frogs, and wormsas come in its way. In its domestic state it is the charm and orna-ment of our lakes and rivers; but, except in some few instances, itis only kept for show, being jealous and cruel in disposition, andincapable of being tamed. The ancients thought the voice of the swan musical and har- THE SONG OF THE SWAN. 251 monious, and its gracefully-rounded form and stately neck inspiredmany poets, who have described it as the bird of gods and goddesses. The poetical imagination of the Greeks, in short, asso-ciated their most agreeable ideas with its name. It was one oftheir pleasing fictions that in dying and breathing out its last sigh,. -« -M^ T^ f^r . ■*^. iJ^f- *?/- .-1* = ^ ^Tsi ^ . 5SvSr>. Pig 9^ —Mute and Whistling Swans the swan celebrated its death by a melodious song; or, as EloyJohanneau has it— Le -Cygne, a la fin de la vie, Fait entendre un touchant accord,Et dune voix afifaiblie, Chante lui-meme en mort. Buffon himself has drawn the portraiture of this bird in wordspoetical, but certainly untrue :—The swan, he says, reigns over 252 REPTILES AND BIRDS. the water by every claim which can constitute an empire of peace, grandeur, majesty, and kindness He lives more in the character of a friend than a monarch amid the numerous tribes ofaquatic birds, all of which seem wilhngly to place themselves underhis rule. The great naturalist allowed himself to be led away by his en-thusiasm, and perhaps by his classic recollections; for the swan, al-though elegant and majestic in form and graceful in its movementson the water, is clumsy a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectrep
