Note 1177 — Chapter VIII · PHILOSTRATUS’S LIFE OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA

The ancient authorities, pro and con, will be found listed in D. W. Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, 106-107. He adds: “Modern naturalists accept the story of the singing swans, asserting that though the common swan cannot sing, yet the Whooper or whistling swan does so. It is certain that the Whooper sings, for many ornithologists state the fact, but I do not think that it can sing very well; at the very best, dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia cygni. This concrete explanation is quite inadequate; it is beyond a doubt that the swan’s song (like the halcyon’s) veiled, and still hides, some mystical allusion.”