"if a mate dies, the remaining swan will take up with another. The number of eggs in each clutch ranges from three to eight. The English word 'swan', akin to the German ""Schwan"", Dutch ""zwaan"" and Swedish ""svan"", is derived from Indo-European root ""*swen"" (to sound, to sing). Young swans are known as ""swanlings"" or as ""cygnets""; the latter derives via Old French ""cigne"" or ""cisne"" (diminutive suffix -""et"" ""little"") from the Latin word """", a variant form of ""cycnus"" ""swan"", itself from the Greek ""kýknos"", a word of the same meaning. An adult male is a ""cob"", from Middle"
"Swan maiden The swan maiden is a mythical creature who shapeshifts from human form to swan form. Despite the name, males are found in a small number of legends. The key to the transformation is usually a swan skin, or a garment with swan feathers attached. In folktales of this type, the male character spies the maiden typically by some body of water (usually bathing), then snatches away the feather garment (or some other article of clothing), which prevents her from flying away (or swimming away, or renders her helpless in some other manner), forcing her to become his wife."
"Mute swan The mute swan (""Cygnus olor"") is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurasia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. Measuring in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black. It is recognisable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males. The mute swan was"
"in the South East and sometimes referred to as ""maali"" in language schools. Works cited Black swan The black swan (""Cygnus atratus"") is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders, and are unusual in that one-quarter of all pairings are homosexual, mostly between males. Both partners share incubation and cygnet rearing duties. Black swans were introduced to various countries as"
"Whooper swan The whooper swan (""Cygnus cygnus""), pronounced ""hooper swan"", is a large Northern Hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type species for the genus ""Cygnus"". Francis Willughby and John Ray's ""Ornithology"" of 1676 referred to this swan as ""the Elk, Hooper, or wild Swan"". The scientific name is from ""cygnus"", the Latin for ""swan"". The whooper swan is similar in appearance to the Bewick's swan. It is larger, however, at a length of and a wingspan of . Weight typically is in the range of , with an average of"
"heavier than females. The Northern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white plumage but the Southern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australian black swan (""Cygnus atratus"") is completely black except for the white flight feathers on its wings; the chicks of black swans are light grey. The South American black-necked swan has a white body with a black neck. Swans' legs are normally a dark blackish grey colour, except for the two South American species, which have pink legs. Bill colour varies: the four subarctic species have black bills with varying amounts of yellow, and all the"
"Black-necked swan The black-necked swan (""Cygnus melancoryphus"") is a swan that is the largest waterfowl native to South America. Adults average and weigh . The wingspan ranges from . The body plumage is white with a black neck and head and greyish bill. It has a red knob near the base of the bill and white stripe behind eye. The sexes are similar, with the female slightly smaller. The cygnet has a light grey plumage with black bill and feet. The black-necked swan was formerly placed in monotypic genus, ""Sthenelides"". The black-necked swan, like its nearest relatives the black and"
"Scotland. Whooper swan The whooper swan (""Cygnus cygnus""), pronounced ""hooper swan"", is a large Northern Hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type species for the genus ""Cygnus"". Francis Willughby and John Ray's ""Ornithology"" of 1676 referred to this swan as ""the Elk, Hooper, or wild Swan"". The scientific name is from ""cygnus"", the Latin for ""swan"". The whooper swan is similar in appearance to the Bewick's swan. It is larger, however, at a length of and a wingspan of . Weight typically is in the range of , with an average"
"They are also called swan mays or swanmays in fantasy fiction and ""Dungeons and Dragons"". In the Mercedes Lackey book, ""Fortune's Fool"", one swan maiden (named Yulya) from a flock of six is kidnapped by a Jinn. Elven princess Eärwen in The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien was referred to as the ""swan maiden of Alqualonde"". The animal bride theme is explored in an animated film called ""The Red Turtle"" (2016). Bibliography Swan maiden The swan maiden is a mythical creature who shapeshifts from human form to swan form. Despite the name, males are found in a small number of legends."
"Black swan The black swan (""Cygnus atratus"") is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders, and are unusual in that one-quarter of all pairings are homosexual, mostly between males. Both partners share incubation and cygnet rearing duties. Black swans were introduced to various countries as an ornamental bird in the 1800s, but have escaped and formed stable populations. A small"
"swan was named in 1830 by William Yarrell after the engraver Thomas Bewick, who specialised in illustrations of birds and animals. ""Cygnus"" is the Latin for ""swan"", and "" columbianus"" comes from the Columbia River, the type locality. ""C. columbianus"" is the smallest of the Holarctic swans, at in length, in wingspan and a weight range of . In adult birds, the plumage of both subspecies is entirely white, with black feet, and a bill that is mostly black, with a thin salmon-pink streak running along the mouthline and – depending on the subspecies – more or less yellow in"
"in collections, and escapes are not unusual amongst feral flocks of other ""Anser"" and ""Branta"" geese. The swan goose is large and long-necked for its genus, wild birds being long (the longest ""Anser"" goose) and weighing or more (the second-heaviest ""Anser"", after the greylag goose, ""A. anser""). The sexes are similar, although the male is larger, with a proportionally longer bill and neck; in fact the largest females are barely as large as the smallest males. Typical measurements of the wing are in males, in females; the bill is about long in males and in females. The tarsus of males"
"cycle of the moon (in The Lunatic Cafe, chapter 8, Anita states that swanmanes are tied to the moon), and does not appear to interfere with carrying children to term during pregnancy. Swanmanes are almost exclusively female. The few male exceptions (known as Drakes, which word was never used in Anita Blake Vampire Huter cycle) are born specifically to the task of rulership over the swanmanes, although their level of power varies. For example, Donnovan Reece is a Swan King, while Kaspar Gunderson was merely a Swan Prince. Despite the number of living drakes, only one rules over the swanmanes"
"swans weigh and females weigh . The length is from and the wingspan is . They have white plumage except for black tips to the outer six primary feathers, although this black is often barely visible on the closed wing. In flight, the black wing tips are conspicuous. The bird has a red beak, legs and feet. They look somewhat more like geese than swans. The female looks almost identical to the male. The cygnet is a patchy color, with brown and gray hues. The coscoroba swan is also lacking the black mask that other swans have where their lores"
"English ""cobbe"" (leader of a group); an adult female is a ""pen"". Swans are the largest extant members of the waterfowl family Anatidae, and are among the largest flying birds. The largest species, including the mute swan, trumpeter swan, and whooper swan, can reach a length of over and weigh over . Their wingspans can be over . Compared to the closely related geese, they are much larger and have proportionally larger feet and necks. Adults also have a patch of unfeathered skin between the eyes and bill. The sexes are alike in plumage, but males are generally bigger and"
"its habitat, the black-necked swan is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Black-necked swan The black-necked swan (""Cygnus melancoryphus"") is a swan that is the largest waterfowl native to South America. Adults average and weigh . The wingspan ranges from . The body plumage is white with a black neck and head and greyish bill. It has a red knob near the base of the bill and white stripe behind eye. The sexes are similar, with the female slightly smaller. The cygnet has a light grey"
"Modernismo with a sonnet provocatively entitled, ""Tuércele el cuello al cisne – ""Wring the Swan's Neck"""" (1910). Swans are revered in Hinduism, and are compared to saintly persons whose chief characteristic is to be in the world without getting attached to it, just as a swan's feather does not get wet although it is in water. The Sanskrit word for swan is ""hamsa"" and the ""Raja Hamsam"" or the Royal Swan is the vehicle of Goddess Saraswati which symbolises the ""Sattva Guna"" or purity par excellence. The swan if offered a mixture of milk and water, is said to be"
"the king of nāgas and nāginis. They are common and hold cultural significance in the mythological traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. In Sanskrit, a () is a cobra, the Indian cobra (""Naja naja""). A synonym for ' is ' (). There are several words for ""snake"" in general, and one of the very commonly used ones is ' (). Sometimes the word ' is also used generically to mean ""snake"". The word is cognate with English 'snake', Germanic: ""*snēk-a-"", Proto-IE: *(s)nēg-o- (with s-mobile). The mythological serpent race that took form as cobras often can be found"
"this?"" asks the swan, before carrying him, suitably humbled, back to safety. Written records of the fable do not appear in Europe after Archilochus until Medieval times. Here the boastful animal is generally the fox, but the animal with the one trick may be the hedgehog (Greece), the crane (Russia), the squirrel (Armenia), or the cock or dove. In western Europe, it is always the cat, appearing in very similar versions, though with variation in the number of tricks the fox possesses. Some of the collections we find the fable in are the Anglo-Latin Romulus (80 tricks), in Marie de"
"Hamsa (bird) The hamsa (Sanskrit: हंस, """" or ""hansa"") is an aquatic bird of passage, such as a goose or a swan. Its icon is used in Indian and Southeast Asian culture as a spiritual symbol and a decorative element. It is vahana of Lord Brahma Gayatri, Saraswati and Lord Vishvakarma. Monier Williams translates the term from Sanskrit as ""goose, gander, swan, flamingo, or other aquatic bird of passage"". The word is also used for a mythical or poetical bird with knowledge. In the Rig Veda, it is the bird which is able to separate Soma from water, when mixed;"
"Nāga Naga (IAST: ""nāga""; Devanāgarī: नाग) or Nagi (f. of nāga; IAST: ""nāgī""; Devanāgarī: नागी) is a Sanskrit word which basically refers to a ""serpent"" or ""snake"", especially the King cobra. The term ""Naga"" in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism denotes divine, semi-divine deities, or a semi-divine race of half-human half-serpent beings that resides in the heavenly ""Patala"" (netherworld) and can occasionally take human form. They are principally depicted in three forms: wholly humans with snakes on the heads and necks; common serpents or as half-human half-snake beings. A female naga is a ""nagi"", ""nagin"", or ""nagini"". ""Nagaraja"" is seen as"
"Swan Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus Cygnus. The swans' close relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae. There are six or seven living (and one extinct) species of swan in the genus ""Cygnus""; in addition, there is another species known as the coscoroba swan, although this species is no longer considered one of the true swans. Swans usually mate for life, although “divorce” sometimes occurs, particularly following nesting failure, and"
"Knight of the Swan The story of the Knight of the Swan, or Swan Knight, is a medieval tale about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat to defend a damsel, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name. The earliest versions (preserved in ""Dolopathos"") do not provide specific identity to this knight, but the Old French Crusade cycle of ""chansons de geste"" adopted it to make the Swan Knight (""Le Chevalier au Cigne"", first version around 1192) the legendary ancestor of Godfrey of Bouillon. The ""Chevalier au Cigne"", also known as Helias, figures"
"neck under the water and it is able to keep its head flat against the bottom while keeping its body horizontal. In deeper water the swan up-ends to reach lower. Black swans are also able to filter feed at the water's surface. Like other swans, the black swan is largely monogamous, pairing for life (about 6% divorce rate). Recent studies have shown that around a third of all broods exhibit extra-pair paternity. An estimated one-quarter of all pairings are homosexual, mostly between males. They steal nests, or form temporary threesomes with females to obtain eggs, driving away the female after"
"The Magic Swan The Magic Swan is a European fairy tale collected by Hermann Kletke. Andrew Lang included it in ""The Green Fairy Book"". Two older brothers abused the youngest son, Peter. An old woman advised him to run away. When he did, she told him he should go to a certain tree, where he would find a man asleep and a swan tied to a tree; he should take the swan without waking the man, and everyone would fall in love with its plumage, but when they touched it, he could say ""Swan, hold fast"" and they would be"
"Paramahamsa Paramahamsa (परमाहंस), also spelled paramahansa or paramhansa, is a Sanskrit religio-theological title of honor applied to Hindu spiritual teachers who are regarded as having attained enlightenment. The title literally means ""supreme swan,"" and symbolizes spiritual discrimination. The swan is equally at home on land and on water; similarly, the true sage is equally at home in the realms of matter and of spirit. To be in divine ecstasy and simultaneously to be actively wakeful is the ""paramahansa"" state; the 'royal swan' of the soul floats in the cosmic ocean, beholding both its body and the ocean as manifestations of"
"first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as ""Anas olor"" in 1789, and was transferred by Johann Matthäus Bechstein to the new genus ""Cygnus"" in 1803. Both ""cygnus"" and ""olor"" mean ""swan"" in Latin; ""cygnus"" is a variant form of ""cycnus"", a borrowing from Greek ""kyknos"", a word of the same meaning. Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia and the black-necked swan of South America, not the other Northern Hemisphere swans. The species is monotypic with no living subspecies. Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial"
"Ring of Shah Maran, A Story from the Mountains of Kurdistan"" by Raphael Emmanuel tells the folk story of a boy that shares bread with animals and earns the respect of Shahmaran. Shahmaran Shahmaran (; , , , ) or ਸੱਪ ਦੇ ਸ਼ਾਹ Punjabi; ""Sapa dē Shaha',"" is a mythical creature in Iran, Anatolia, India and Iraq. The name of Shahmaran comes from Persian words ""Shah"" and ""Maran"". Shah is the title for a king, primarily the leader of the Iranians and their land and ""mar"" means snake. In plural ""Mar-an"" means snakes. Shahmaran is known as the queen of"
"(""Pelecanus crispus"") and Andean condor (""Vultur gryphus""), it is one of the handful to scale in excess of between the sexes and one survey of wintering trumpeters found it averaged second only to the condor in mean mass. The trumpeter swan's wingspan ranges from , with the wing chord measuring . The largest known male trumpeter attained a length of , a wingspan of and a weight of . It is the second heaviest wild waterfowl ever found, as one mute swan was found to weigh a massive , but it has been stated that was unclear whether this swan"
"Hindi: ""hans"", Tamil: ""அன்னப்பறவை""; , ""hong""; , , and commonly spelt ""hintha"" or ""hinthar""; , or ""hongsa""; Shan: , or ""hong""; Thai: หงส์, ; Malay: ""angsa"" (اڠسا‎). The hintha (hamsa) is widely depicted in Burmese art, considered to be ""swan"" in its mythology, and has been adopted as the symbol of the Mon people. Hamsa (bird) The hamsa (Sanskrit: हंस, """" or ""hansa"") is an aquatic bird of passage, such as a goose or a swan. Its icon is used in Indian and Southeast Asian culture as a spiritual symbol and a decorative element. It is vahana of Lord Brahma"
"mute swan, while some refer to geese. Dave's identification is based on the details provided in the Sanskrit texts about the changes in plumage over the bird's life, described voice, migratory habits, courtship rituals and flying patterns. Some Sanskrit texts, states Dave, distinguish between ""Hamsa"" and ""Kadamb"", the former being swan and latter as bar-headed goose. Regardless of whether it is goose or swan, the word in the title is symbolism for something that migrates, is transcendent. The text title likely refers to it being a treatise for individual soul, seeking the highest soul (""Paramahamsa""). The text opens with Gautama"
"Shahmaran Shahmaran (; , , , ) or ਸੱਪ ਦੇ ਸ਼ਾਹ Punjabi; ""Sapa dē Shaha',"" is a mythical creature in Iran, Anatolia, India and Iraq. The name of Shahmaran comes from Persian words ""Shah"" and ""Maran"". Shah is the title for a king, primarily the leader of the Iranians and their land and ""mar"" means snake. In plural ""Mar-an"" means snakes. Shahmaran is known as the queen of the serpents. This story can be traced from the Middle East to India with different variations, one version is also found in the Arabian Night Tales as the story of Jemlia -"
"Sharabha Sharabha (, , , Telugu: శరభ) or Sarabha is a part-lion and part-bird beast in Hindu mythology, who, according to Sanskrit literature, is eight-legged and more powerful than a lion or an elephant, possessing the ability to clear a valley in one jump. In later literature, Sharabha is described as an eight-legged deer. Shaiva scriptures narrate that god Shiva assumed the Avatar (incarnation) of Sharabha to pacify Narasimha - the fierce man-lion avatar of Vishnu worshipped by Vaishnava sect. This form is popularly known as Sharabeshwara (""Lord Sharabha"") or Sharabeshwaramurti. The Vaishnavas refute the portrayal of Narasimha as being"