THE BLACK SWAN.
The BLACK SWAN (Cygnus-Chenopsis-atratus) has a slender body, very long neck, and small well-formed head; the beak nearly equals the head in length, and is without a cere. In this species almost the entire plumage is of a brownish black, lightest on the under side, and shading into blackish grey at the edges of the feathers. This sombre garb is relieved by the brilliant white of the primary and of a considerable portion of the secondary quills. The eyes are scarlet, the bridles red, and the feet black: the beak is carmine-red, tipped with white, a stripe near the extremity of the upper mandible is also white. This bird is not quite so large as the Cygnus olor. The Black Swan is not merely strictly confined to Australia, but inhabits only its southern and western districts, occupying the rivers, estuaries, lagoons, and large pieces of water frequently in large flocks. On arms of the sea, which expand into sheets of shallow water, these birds are especially numerous, as in such localities they are beyond the reach of severe winds or pursuit from the natives. "In the white man, however," says Mr. Gould, "the Black Swan finds an enemy so deadly, that it has been almost, if not entirely, extirpated. One most destructive mode in which this is effected, is that of chasing the birds with a boat at the time they shed their primary quill-feathers, when, being unable to fly, they are soon rowed down and captured."
The breeding season is from the beginning of October to the middle of January. Mr. Gould procured newly-hatched young, clad in greyish white, at Southport River, on the 31st of December, and took five newly-laid eggs on Flinders' Island on Bass' Straits, on the 13th January. The nest is large, composed of flags and other herbage, and generally placed on an isolated island. The eggs are from five to eight, pale green stained all over with buffy brown, and are four and a half inches long by two and three-quarters broad. The Black Swan is graceful in demeanour, and gentle and harmless unless molested.
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BLACK-NECKED SWANS (Cygnus nigricollis).
These birds are to be found in most aviaries in Europe, but as an instance of their most successful rearing, Mr. Gould gives us the following account of some of them kept on the Wandle, at Carshalton, Surrey, by Mr. S. Gurney:—"They were purchased from Baker, Leadenhall Market, in 1851, but did not breed till 1854, when they laid their first egg on January 1. It was a most severe winter, snow on the ground, and intense frost nearly the whole time they were sitting. They hatched their young during the greatest cold of that winter, from which they did not suffer, though they had no shelter of any kind, and their nest was fully exposed to the east wind. Out of the ninety-three young ones hatched by them up to the present year, 1862 (inclusive), about half that number have been reared. Some of them have died from disease, but most of them have been killed by the old ones dragging them about in the fields, when they have fallen into small holes on their backs, and have not been able to recover themselves. They have bred sixteen times in seven years, having laid 111 eggs."
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THE BLACK SWAN (Cygnus or Chenopsis atratus). ONE-SIXTH NATURAL SIZE.