' 



420 AVES. 



tables, flies extremely high and with great swiftness, using its 

 wings, Avhich are a powerful weapon, in striking its enemies 

 Avhen attacked. It breeds among the reeds in ponds, and lays 

 six or eight eggs of a greenish-grey. 



An. cygnus, Gm.5 Edw. 150; Brit. Zool. pi. 2; Naum., Ed. 

 I, t. 13, f. 27. (The Black-billed Swan.) Bill black with a yel- 

 low basej the body white tinged with a yellowish grey when 

 young, all grey. This species, which is very similar externally 

 to the preceding one, differs essentially from it internally, in 

 the trachea, which is bent over and penetrates to a considerable 

 extent in a cavity of the keel of the sternum, a peculiarity com- 

 mon to both sexes which does not exist in the domestic Swan. 

 The latter is also erroneously called the Wild Sivan, and the 

 Singing Swan. The tale of its singing on the approach of death 

 is a fable. 



Jin. plutonia, Sh.j A. atrata, Lath.; Cigne noir; Nat. Misc. pi. 

 108; Vieill. Gal. 286 (The Black Swan), has been lately dis- 

 covered in New Holland; it is the size of the common species, 

 but its carriage is less graceful and elegant; it is all black, the 

 primary quills excepted, which are white, and the bill with 

 the naked skin on its base, which is red.(l) 

 It is impossible to separate from the Swans, certain species, much 

 less elegant it is true, but which have the same kind of bill. Se- 

 veral have a tubercle at its base. The most common, 



An. cygndides, L.; Oie de Guinee, Enl. 347, is bred in poultry 

 yards, where it mixes with the Geese. It is a whitish grey with 

 a brown grey mantle; the male is recognised by a feathered ap- 

 pendage which hangs under his bill, and by a large tubercle 

 "which surmounts its base. Another species, much rarer, called 

 by its first describers 



An. gambensis, L.; Oiede Gamble; Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 2, pi. 102, 

 is remarkable for its size, long legs, tubercle on the forehead, 

 and for two large spurs with which its wing is armed. Its plu- 

 mage is a purple black, the throat, front, and under part of the 

 body and wings, white.(2) 



(1) The Oie d cravatte {An. canadensis, L.) Enl. 346, Wils., LXVII, 4, appears 

 to me to be a true Swan. 



(2) Buff, has confounded this Goose' with a variety of the Oie d'Egypte, Enl, 

 982. The figure of Latham is defective, inasmuch as it shows but one spur; the 

 helmet also is not salient. 



This is also the place for the Oie hronzie a crite stir k bee, Jpecati apoa, of Marcgr, 

 {An. melanoios), Enl. 937, Vieill. 285. . 



