I'm comparing swans to the Maldive Shark again, in that spirit of Melville, flicked once upon a book. The newly grown cygnet ravens on duckweed and fright of cautious children - but perhaps, in this drought, they now have things to fear? Reasons to bite...

The Maldives Shark by Herman Melville About the Shark, phlegmatical one, Pale sort of the Maldives sea, The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim, How alert in attendance be. From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw They have nothing of harm to dread, But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank Or before his Gorgonian head; Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth In white triple tiers of glittering gates, And there find a haven when peril's abroad, An asylum in jaws of Fates! They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey, Yet never partake of the treat - Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull, Pale ravener of horrible meat.