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he has often feen Swans in Norway and Sweden towering to a very great altitude in the air; and a learned Friend of unquestionable veracity informs me, that in the fevere winter of 1745 many Swans to his knowledge came to Blenheim Park in Oxfordshire, which were never before seen in this country, and as he justly apprehends from the North; confequently they must have croffed the Seas. Olaus Magnus in his History of Northern Nations obferves, that the Swans remain in these Countries as long as the warmth continues, till at laft, being conquered by the feverity of the weather, they raise themselves in air, and fly to the warmer regions, and one may fee them elevated among the highest clouds'. Thus Thomas Bartholinus' in his Anatomy of the Swan informs us, that this Bird has its principal ftrength in its wings from the union of its tendons and porous bones: whence it often expands its wings, and particularly when the zephyr blows: Hence fome are of opinion, continues he, that its found was occafioned not from its mouth, but from its expanded and inflated wings: To this allude the following lines,

3 Non canit affuetâ Cygnus vocalis in undâ,
Ni Zephyri fpirat mollior aura fibi.

The ancient idea of the mufical quality of the Swan will be amply confidered in the following note; but here I may examine the fingular opinion, that the found was derived from the wings and not from the voice. Befides the above paffage

• Per altiffimas nubes evolare cernuntur. L. XIX. c. 14. p. 660. ed. 1555. 2 De Cygni anatome ejufque cantu. Ed. 1668. p. 65.

3 Here Bartholinus does not inform us of his authority for thefe verfes; nor am I able at prefent to difcover it.

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Bartholinus has cited Nazianzen, who in one place afferts, that the Swan fings, when it unfolds its wings to the air, while the whistling occafions the melody; and in another ', that it fings a sweet and harmonious ftrain, when the Zephyr inspires its wings. To this idea, adds Bartholinus, Statius probably alludes in that line of his first Sylva,

Claraque gaudentes plauferunt limina cygni.

7

(V. 146.)

The above three mentioned paffages are contained in a note of La Cerda on the ninth Eclogue of Virgil, to whom Bartholinus is probably indebted for them: but the inference, which is drawn by the learned Critick, is very different from that of the ingenious Naturalift: The former folves the ancient opinion of the harmony of the Swan from the whistling of its wings: The latter condemns it as a moft ridiculous error; for no Philofopher of found judgment in his opinion has ever taught, that the voice could result from the clapping of the wings. It will be curious and interefting however to furvey the additional authorities of the Ancients in fupport of this extraordinary notion, as it has never yet been done to my knowledge. Homer, or the author of thofe Hymns attributed to him, thus addreffes Apollo:

Φοῖβε σε μὲν, καὶ κύκνος ὑπὸ πλερύγων λίγ' αείδει,

"Oxên inì Agwonwv. (Odyff. & vol. II. ed. Clerke, p. 754.)

4 The words in the original run thus:

Τὶς ὁ κύκνῳ συνυφαίνων τὴν ὠδὴν, ὅταν ἐκπελάσῃ τὸ πλερὸν ταῖς αὔξαις, καὶ Toiñ μéños rò cújiya. (Orat. 34. tom. I. p. 541. ed. 1630.)

5 Ὅταν ἄνωμεν τῷ Ζεφύρῳ τὰς πλέρυγας ἐμπνεῖν ἡδὺ τὶ καὶ ἐναρμόνιον.

(Epift. I. Id. p. 763.)

He cites it in Omina: but it is limina in my edition. Lug. 1671.

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$ (V. 29.

9 P. 65.

The

The Swan, exulting on the bank, fings thee, Ο Phoebus,

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with a delightful to found from under its wing. derstand the expreffion in Apollonius Rhodius,

Κύκνοι κινήσωσιν ἑὸν μέλος.

Thus I un

(Argon. 1. IV. v. 1301.)

To imply that the Swans by their motion produce their melody: But Ariftophanes exprefsly alludes to this notion in the play of his Birds.

Τοιάνδε κύκνοι

Τιοτιοτιοτιότιγξ

Συμμιγή βοὴν ὁμε

Πτεροῖσι κρέκονες, ἴαχον Απόλλω,

Τιοτιοτιοτιότιγξ.

(v. 775.)

And Anacreon is explicit to this purpose,

"Α]ε τις κύκνος Καΐςρο

Πολιοῖς πλεροῖσι μέλπων

Ανέμε σύναυλον ἠχήν. (Carm. 56. v. 33.)

II

As the Swan of Cayfter, finging with its beautiful wings a ftrain in concert with the wind. Thus Philoftratus " in the life of Apollonius informs us, that the Swans, which were fed in the meadow, formed a chorus round his mother, as fhe was fleeping, and raifing their wings according to cuftom, refounded in concert, for the Zephyr breathed at the fame time

10 Thus I have tranflated the word aiya, for our Poet in his Heraclidæ beflows this epithet on the fure, λίγεια λωτος χάρις (v. 893.) and in his Baco chæ he calls the fute εὐκέλαδος (v. 16ο.) or fweetly founding; confequently the former word Xiya muit alfo imply an agreeable tone: Befides Helychius defines λίγα, λίγύρως, ἡδέως, which correfponds with the fame idea.

II

11 L. I. c. 5. p. 7. ed. Clear.

in

in the meadow: The fame Author in one of his Images " afferts, that it is the wind of the Zephyr, which infpires the Swans with their fong, and that the Swans expand their wings to receive this percuffion: And in another of his Images 3 he obferves, that the Swans made ufe of a gentle and obvious Zephyr, which is reported to confpire in concert with their mournful fong. Theodorus Bishop of Tarfus, as contained in Photius, exprefsly afks, whether the want of reafon in Swans prevented them ever from finging with their wings; and Himerius 15 the Sophift, preferved in the fame Author, afferts, that in a certain vernal meadow there was a Swan, who was ready to expand his wings to the Zephyr in order to fing. Chryfoftom 16 alfo draws a comparison from Swans finging with their wings. If we defcend to modern Authorities, in the Ornithology 17 of Aldrovandus, Politian is cited, as affirming that the Swan is declared never to fing, except when the Zephyr breathes, and the fame Natu ralist produces the following lines of another Author to this ellect,

Sed, qui tenent arcana Naturæ, negant

Audiri olorem, ni fonent Favonii.

He also obferves from Pierius 18, that among the Ægyptians a winged boy, reprefenting the Zephyr, was painted as the fymbol of fong; for it is that wind which infpires and increases

12 Paludes, 1. I. c. 9. Id. p. 775. 14 Bibliot. p. 686. ed. Schotrus.

13 Phaeton, Id. p. 781. 15 Id. p. 1127. 16' Orat. 33. 17 Tom. III. 1. 19. p. 31. ed. 1603. 18 Cantilenæ vero fignum videas puerulum alatum, qui ventus Zephyrus, is enim cantum Oloribus infpirat & elargitur: Pingitur vero is delicatus mollis cujus modi elt aura ejus, quam libenter adeò captamus; Olorum verò plumæ identidem afflatu eo furriguntur, quippe quæ repercuffu venti commoventur. (Pier. Hieroglyph. 1. XXIII. p. 830. ed. 1602.)

the

the melody of Swans: He is depicted foft and delicate, like the gale, which we imbibe with fo much pleasure; the feathers of the Swan are inflated by its infpiration, as they are moved by the percuffion of the wind. Leland alfo in his Kúжvelov ãoμa feems in the following lines to allude to this notion.

Strepitum dedit fonorum

Cygnorum niveus chorus canentum
Concuflis alacri vigore pennis.

Itiner. vol. IX. p. 10. ed. Hearne.

The reader may perhaps be aftonifhed to find, that an idea of this extraordinary nature could prevail among fo many different Authors, and in ages fo remote from each other.

N° VII.

Verfe 169. Τις καλλιφθογγές ᾠδες.

170. Or thou wilt fteep thy melody in blood.

SINCE the Animal Creation is uniform in the exercise of their faculties, implanted by Nature, the prevailing opinion of the mufical power of the Swan among the Greeks and Romans arretts the attention of curiofity, and demands an inquiry into the nature of the evidence. When an ancient notion revolts against the reigning ideas of Mankind, we are too often difpofed to reject the teftimony of enlightened Nations, and to condemn it unheard, as a vulgar error: But Candour, unbiaffed by prejudice, suspends her verdict, till the whole testimony, fairly stated, is impartially difcuffed.

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