Nature Description:
The swans are the largest members of the duck family Anatidae, and are amongst the largest flying birds. Swans are birds which also includes geese and ducks. They also have a patch of unfeathered skin between the eyes and bill in adults. The sexes are alike in plumage, but males are generally bigger and heavier than females.
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 or hansa, and it is the vehicle of many deities like the goddess Saraswati. It is mentioned several times in the Vedic literature, and persons who have attained great spiritual capabilities are sometimes called Oaranagansa ("Great Swan") on account of their spiritual grace and ability to travel between various spiritual worlds. In the vedas, swans are said to reside in the summer on Lake Manasarovar and migrage to Indian lakes for the winter. They're believed to possess some powers such as the ability to eat pearls. They are also believed to be able to drink up the milk and leave the water from a saucer of milk adulterated with water.
In the United Kingdom there is a popular belief that all swans are the property of the reigning Monarch. In fact their right to ownership of swans is restricted to unmarked Mute Swans on open water, and this right is exercised ony on certain stretches of the River Thames and some of its tributaries between Windsor and Abingdon. However, strictly speaking the British swans are the property of the Queen, except for the Swans of Orkney. This is because of an old Udal Viking law that states that the swans are the property of the residents of the islands. This was proven in 1910 when an Orkney lawyer won the case of a man who shot a swan.
