Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/227

LEFT SWAMPSCOTT 185 the seat of the Phillips School. Pop. (1910) 6,204; (1920) 8,101. SWAN, in ornithology, any individual of the genus Cygnus. The swans form a sharply-defined group; the body is elon- SWANSEA BLACK SWAN gated, the neok very long, head moderate ; beak about as long as head; legs short, and placed far back. On the under sur- face the plumage is thick and fur like; on the upper side the feathers are broad, but both above and below the body is thickly covered with down. Their short legs render the movements on land awk- ward and ungainly, but in the water these birds are graceful to a proverb. Their food consists of vegetable substances and weeds, their long necks enabling them to dip below the surface and to reach their food at considerable depths. Swans breed in high latitudes, but the domesticated species, Cygnus olor, the mute swan, breeds on eyots and the shores of lakes, making a very large nest on land, in which five or six greenish eggs are de- posited. The young generally are cov- ered with a gray dow^n till the age of two years, when they assume the char- acteristic white plumage of the older birds. Three other species visit temper- ate Europe: the elk, hooper, whooper, or whistling swan (C. musicus) ; Bewick's swan (C. betvicki), and the Polish swan (C. imniutabilis), which owes its specific name to the fact that the cygnets are pure white like the parent birds. The mute swan is the largest and most ma- WHISTLING SWAN jestic of the four, and is easily recognized by the black knob at the base of the bill. There are some other species, chiefly from North America, but the most beautiful of fhe, whole genus is the black-necked swan (C. nigricollis), from South Amer- ica; while the most remarkable is the black swan (C. atratus), from Australia, first taken to other countries early in the 17th century. So convinced were the ancients that white plumage was of the essence of a swan, that a "black swan" was a proverbial expression for some- thing extremely rare. The stories about the musical voice of the swan appear to have some foundation in fact so far as regards the whooper (C. rnusimis). In astronomy, the constellation Cygnus (q. v.). Figuratively applied to a famous poet; thus Shakespeare is called the Swan of Avon, Vergil the Swan of Man' tua. SWAN RIVER, a river in Western Australia, which colony was originall5 known as the "Swan River Settlement." Perth, the capital of the colony, is on the Swan river, and Fremantle is at it£ mouth. SWANSDOWN, the name for a fine, soft, thick, woolen cloth; or more com- monly for a thick cotton cloth with a soft nap on one side. SWANSEA (Welsh, Abertawe), a sea- port of Glamorganshire, South Wales, on the banks and at the mouth of the Tawe river, 45 miles W. N. W. of Cardiff and 216 W. of London. A municipal, parlia- mentary, and also (since 1888) county borough, it is the most important town in South Wales. Its rapid progress de- pends on the manufacture of tin plate here and in the neighborhood; on its harbor and docks which afford every convenience for the largest vessels and steamships afloat; and on its geograph- ical position, on a bay affording a spa- cious, sheltered, and safe anchorage, sev- eral hours nearer the open sea than any other port of comparable size in the Bris- tol Channel. The Harbor Trust of Swan- sea, with a capital of $7,500,000 and an income of upward of $500,000 per an- num, possesses docks constructed since 1847 covering an area of over 60 acres. There is annually manufactured in Swansea and the immediate neighbor- hood upward of two-thirds of the tin plates manufactured in Great Britain, representing a value of upward of $25,- 000,000. There is still a large direct export trade to the United States in tin and (the inferior) terne plates, though this branch of trade was much injured by the tariff legislation of 1890. The chief imports are copper, silver, lead, tin, and nickel, with their ores and alloys, iron and steel in various forms, iron ore, zinc, sulphur, phosphates, flour, grain, esparto, timber bricks, etc. The