long straight neck, not elegantly arched like the tame or mute swan, generally called by naturalists Cygnus olor, about which there is such a halo of poetry and romance, that one can scarcely bring oneself to speak in a dry matter-of-fact manner of its history and habits. It is, in truth, a beautiful and magnificent bird. "The snowy swan, that like a fleecy cloud, Sails o'er the crystal of reflected heaven, (Some waveless stream;) while through her reedy wings The zephyr makes such distant melody, That up we gaze upon the twilight stars, And think it is the spheral music." Whose lines are these? We forget, if we ever knew. They are worthy of a place beside Wordsworth's exquisite description of the bird, with which, of course, our readers are acquainted. The following lines, by James Edmeston, may perhaps be new to them. 66 Queen of the silent Lake, Gliding majestic in thy liquid court, Deep in the shadowy brake Where the imagined water-nymphs resort; And oaken bowers their branches intertwine, And solitude in leafy covert dwells That sanctuary, snowy queen, is thine. Few violate thy state. The timid deer May drink the pure wave as he trots along; The forest-loving birds may hover near; The nightingale may pour her stream of song; But we must not linger with the poets, or the cantus cygni morientis will be sounding in our ears, and a whole host of them, of every age and every clime, from Virgil down to Tennyson, will be filling our imagination with beautiful fancies, and charming our sense of hearing with sweet numbers. Our talk is of wild birds, and therefore we will pass on to Bewick's swan (C. Bewikii), and the Polish swan (C. immutabilis), the latter of which is a rare species with us, and derives the specific name, given to it by Yarrell, from the circumstance, that the young birds are not grey, as with the other swans, but the same colour as the adults, consequently they are "changeless" as to the tint of the plumage. This bird is nearly as large as the tame kind, which weighs from twenty-five to thirty pounds; Bewick's is much smaller, weighing about eleven or twelve pounds; when swimming it VOL. XXXVIII. Ꭰ Ꭰ carries itself much like a goose; it visits Britain less frequently than the Hooper, but in Ireland is more commonly met with than that bird. All the swans appear to be monogamous; their food consists of a variety of grasses, aquatic plants, seeds and roots. Their eggs are two in number, of a brownish white colour, placed in a nest near the water, composed of sedge, grass, and rushes: incubation is said to occupy six weeks. Large and heavy as these birds are, they can fly great distances; in their flight they arrange themselves in a wedge form, like the wild geese, of which we must now speak. Of birds of the genus Anser-Wild Geese as they are indiscriminately called-there are ten distinct species known as British birds. From their far-away homes, on the Arctic shores and lakes, they are annually driven by the severity of the weather, and in their southward flight rest for awhile, if they do not make it the final limit of their travels, amid the comparatively sheltered bays and estuaries, river banks and marshy grounds, of these islands; there they may be found, mingled with swans and ducks, et hoc genus omne, gliding and diving, flying and whirling, and performing their graceful evolutions, in larger or smaller numbers, according as the winter season is more or less rigorous and protracted. The honour of founding our present race of domestic geese seems to rest between, or rather to be shared by, the grey-lag goose (Anser ferus), and the white-fronted goose (A. albifrons.) The first of these, although called the common wild goose, is, in fact, one of the most uncommon, if not the rarest, of any of our anserine visitors, Its plumage is chiefly brown and grey, with some white on the underneath parts behind; its white-topped beak is a dull flesh colour, as are also the legs. This bird sometimes builds its nest on the shores of islands common in our northern lakes; it is extremely shy and watchful, and therefore difficult to shoot. The second named of the above species, which is sometimes called the tortoise-shell goose, from the peculiar markings on the breast and belly, is by no means rare in Britain; it is a very remarkable bird as to appearance, having a light pink bill, and the front part of the head to near the eye perfectly white, the rest of the head being a deep brown: it is considerably the larger bird of the two. The bean goose (A. segetum), and the pink-footed, or short-billed goose (A. brachyrhynchus), are so much alike in appearance, that only an instructed eye could detect the VARIETIES OF GEESE. 403 difference; with them the plumage is brown and grey, with an admixture of white, much like that of the grey-lag, with which the first of them has commonly been confounded, although the white-tipped beak of that bird offers an obvious mark of distinction. With us the bean goose is, perhaps, the commonest of its tribe; the pink-footed is less known, although that is by no means rare. Both these species breed in the Scottish isles, and do much mischief by feeding on the tender blades of the winter wheat and young clover. The Bernicle, or Barnacle goose, (A. leucopsis), respecting whose origin many strange stories have been told, which we have not space to repeat, comes from very high northern latitudes, and visits us only when the weather is very severe; it is a remarkably handsome bird, although black and white, with their intermediate gradations, are all its colours, except just here and there a little tinge of red. The Brent, Brand, Ware, or Horra goose, is not nearly so handsome, the dusky plumage being but little relieved by white. Its generic name, A. torquatus, is borne out by the light colour which divides the black head from the equally dark breast: this is more decidedly a maritime bird than any of our geese, being seldom found inland; this, too, is sometimes called the barnacle, and has been confounded with the bird to which that name more properly belongs. The red-breasted goose (A. ruficollis) is a very peculiarly marked species, having the breast, and sides of the head, of a rich fulvous brown, curiously margined with lines of white, which look as if put on with a brush, so even are they. This is a very rare species. Not so rare is the Egyptian goose (A. Egyptacus), said to be the Vulpanser, or fox goose, of the ancients, so called on account of its wariness and cunning. This is a beautifully marked bird, having the secondaries of its wings of a changing green; the upper part of the body is a rich chestnut brown; the lower part, with the neck and head, a delicate cream colour, variously shaded. Being easily tamed, and breeding in confinement, it has been introduced, as an ornamental bird, into many of our parks, and other private grounds, from whence they have sometimes strayed into the neighbouring country, and heen shot as wild birds, making it appear that the species is more abundant than it really is. The spur-winged, or Gamba goose (A. Gambiensis) is an African bird, of which but a single specimen has occurred in this country; it has an orange-red bill and feet; the plum age, though chiefly black and white, is resplendently bronzed and glossed with a brilliant changing green. The Canada, or cravat goose (A. Canadensis), sometimes I called the Canada swan. This bird weighs from ten to twelve, and sometimes fourteen pounds, a heavy weight for a pair of wings to bear all the way from the extremest north of the American continent. It is only as an occasional straggler, however, that it visits our island, where, like the Egyptian goose, it is sometimes kept in a semi-domesticated state; the second of the above names was given to it on account of the singular white band which extends under the throat, being broad at the bottom, and gradually narrowing until it nearly meets at the top. Black and white, studded with brown, are the colours of this bird's plumage. And here ends our catalogue of Geese: "Quill-bearing geese, a blessing on your fens, Rearing, unconscious, earth's best harvest-pens !” We now come to the Wild Ducks, under which common appellation are included about twenty-eight British species, many of them remarkable for the beauty of their plumage ; all of them presenting in their natural history some curious and interesting points, on which we should be pleased to dwell did our space permit; as it is, we must briefly pass them in review before us. First let us introduce the common and ruddy shieldrakes (Tadorna bellonii and T. rutila,) the latter a very rare and handsome bird, in size and form much like a goose. The prevailing tint of the plumage is a fine orange yellow; the tail and larger wing feathers are black, glossed with green; round the neck passes a distinct black band, like a collar, hence it is sometimes called the collared duck; the common species is a well known maritime bird, valued more for its beauty than as an article of food; it is a permanent resident with us, and widely distributed it has a scarlet bill, black head, white neck, orange breast, the rest of the body is principally white, with black, green, orange, and brown variations. The shoveller, or broadbill (Anas clypeuta,) is a resplendant bird, although so sadly disfigured by its ugly bill; it is by no means common with us, although widely distributed. Transatlantic epicures value its flesh very highly. It is small for a duck, weighing about a pound and a half. Of much the same size is the noisy gadwall (A. strepera,) a very rare bird in this country, whose plumage, if it present not such strong contrasts of colour, is yet perhaps more elegant, and VARIETIES OF DUCKS. 405 certainly more pleasing, because harmonious. A shy, timid bird this, active and agile in its movements, not easy to be got at, so let it pass; and call on the pin-tail or lady duck (A. acuta,) that sits on the water so gracefully, and has such a soft, silky, brown head, and delicate mottled grey back, and white neck and breast; with the hinder wing feathers, black edged with white, drooping like sprays from the birch tree, into the water; there is a patch of green and another of vermillion on the side of the wing, and a green beak that looks like varnished japan ware. The sea pheasant, a name sometimes applied to this bird, must refer to the hen, whose plumage is not unlike that of the female pheasant. Any of our readers who may visit St. James's Park may see this most elegant of ducks in its proper and natural element. As a wild fowl it is not uncommon with us, being found chiefly on the south coast. Equally rich in the colours of its plumage, although by no means so graceful in its form and motions, is the bimaculated duck (A. bimaculatus,) a very rare species, of whose habits but little appears to be known. We now come to the mallard (A. boschus,) the wild duck; the undoubted progenitor of the common domesticated kind; and a handsome fellow he is, with his burnished green head, white collar, brown coppery breast, and all the rest, even to the two little curled up feathers in the tail. This is one of the ducks best known to the sportsman and shooter on the coast. The others are the teal (A. crecca,) the wigeon (A. penelope,) the pintail (before described,) the polchard (Fuligula rufina,) the scaup duck (F. marila,) the tufted duck (F. cristata,) and the golden eye (clangula vulgaris.) "The first four of these," says Mr. Knox, "belong to the typical division of the ducks; their habits are to a certain degree terrestrial, and their powers of flight very great. The other four belong to the oceanic division, and they prefer the sea to either lakes or rivers, except when driven in by severity of weather." Of the vast flocks of Wild Fowl which are known, at certain seasons, to congregate amid the Fens of Lincolnshire, the mallard, the teal, and wigeon, with the polchard, perhaps the most esteemed as a table delicacy, are the prevailing species, at least they form the bulk of those taken in the decoys. Some notion of the extraordinary productiveness of the fens in this article of consumption, may be formed from the fact recorded by Pennant, that in one season 31,200 ducks were sent by ten of them to the London market. We |