I suppose it's easier to take care of a few boat loads of actual swans than a few boatloads of enchanted ballerinas whose forms switch between human and avian during a specified diurnal cycle.

And then again...

I don't know exactly...I'm no avian capture specialist. It just seems to me to be a bit rudimentary. Maybe a big net or something? Ziplok bags with a headhole?

Presumably, my lack of a better idea is contributory to the fact that I am delivering pizzas as a second job instead of rounding up birds.

The swan roundup comes but once a year. It's like Marichiko and the phone books. Once you run out of swans, you run out of work.

Pizzas are steadier income.

But when the weather gets bad, you might want to consider a more "indoor" part time job. Although I genuinely feel for our most frequent delivery guy at the hospital, and tip extra in really bad weather, I know that most people don't do that. He tells us. (usually in appreciation of a $5 tip on a $10 order. Yes, we are softies.)

Not only are they mean, they're also surprisingly strong. One swipe from a swan wing can break your leg. As for eating them: in Britain you have to get the Queen's permission first, because they all belong to her (with the exception of a few swans located on one stretch of the Thames, which belong to the Dyers and the Vintners Companies).

I wanna be a swanboy,
and you can be my swangirl,
Looking like a hero,
Six-gun at my side,
Chewing my tobacco.
Out on the horizon,
I see a puff of smoke.
Indians on the warpath,
etc.

Hmmm....
wing + leg = fracture.
Ever wonder why they are so mean? Because they are so beautiful. The prettiest girls are always the meanest bitches.(local observation).
I find it very interesting how the Queen can just "claim" all the swans in the country. What'd she do? Have a whim? OK............. "let me see now.......I really need to own every swan in the country. I'll call Tony & have him arrange it! Anybody wants a swan around here goes through me, mind you!"
Does she own all the swans in other countries, or maybe just a controlling intrest? Intriguing, to say the least.
British Terrorism: Swan abuse. heehee.................. :yelgreedy

'Ride a white swan like the people of the Beltane
Wear your hair long, babe you can't go wrong'

-T Rex.

thank you

Look a swan in the eyes, and you'll find it hard to decide if it's an innocent bird your admiring or Hannible Lector in disguise...... Sorry, I said I was finished with the term innocent.... I"ve never seen such evil in a persons eyes. However, this is probably justr my warped perception. Try it, and decide for yourself.

Them crazy, them crazy
We gonna chase those crazy
White swans out of town
Chase those crazy white swans
Out of town

I and I build a cabin
I and I plant the corn
Didn't my people before me
Slave for this country
Now you look me with a scorn
Then you eat up all my corn

We gonna chase those crazy white swanns
Chase them crazy
Chase those crazy white swans out of town

Griff Knows.

So does Paula Cole:
Where is my Roger Tory Peterson*
Where is my canal song*
Where is my happy ending*
Where have all the swanboys gone?
Yippee aye Yippee yea

BTW,
I asked the Queen and she said the swans taste like a cross between a spotted owl and a California condor. But not like chicken!

What with all the songs going about, I keep thinking of Loreena McKennit's Bonny Swan, you know the one where that girl kills her sister by throwing her in the river, and then she turns into a swan and then a harp that sings the tale of her murder at the wedding of her sister to her boyfriend? It makes more sense when you listen to it.