BIRDS OF KANSAS. 105 



written. This clergyman then professed himself ready to take 

 his oath upon the Gospels that what Gyraldns had recorded of 

 the generation of this bird was most true; for he himself had 

 seen with his eyes, and also handled those half-formed birds; 

 and he said further, that if I remained a couple of months 

 longer in London, he would have some of them sent to me." 

 And Dr. Jerome Cardani, a celebrated Italian scholar and 

 physician, born about 1551, after visiting Scotland to inv^esti- 

 gate the matter, reached the same conclusion, and in summing- 

 up, as if to remove all doubts, remarks that the circumstance 

 that the Hebridian Sea should engender Geese "is not a whit 

 more marvelous than that mice, on the authority of Aristotle, 

 are generated from the ground, or that the soil of Egypt should 

 grow hares and goats, inasmuch as nature always produces what 

 is most suitable to a place." 



Subfamily CYGNIN^. Swans. 



"Neck extremely loug (as long as, or longer, than the body); size very large; 

 bill longer than the head, the edges parallel, the nail small; tarsi shorter than 

 middle toe; lores naked; tail feathers 20 to 24; color chiefly, or entirely, white 

 (except iu Cheruqmatruta, the Black Swan of Anstralia)." 



Genus OLOR Wagler. 

 "Neck very long (longer than the body), bill longer than tlie head (commis- 

 sure longer than the tarsus), widening slightly to the end, the edges straight; 

 basal portion of the bill covered by a soft skin, extending over the lores to the 

 eye, the upper line running nearly straight back from the forehead to the upper 

 eyelid, the lower running from the eye obliquely downward, In a nearly straight 

 line, to the rictus. Nostrils situated a little posterior to the middle of the max- 

 illa, and quite near the culmen; no trace of a knob or caruncle at base of the 

 bill. Lower portion of the tibia bare; tarsus much shorter tiian middle toe (but 

 little longer than the inner), much compressed, covered with hexagonal scales, 

 which become smaller on the sides and behind. Hind toe small, much elevated, 

 the lobe narrow. Tail very short, rounded or graduated, of twenty to twenty- 

 four feathers. Wings rounded, the second and third quills longest; primaries 

 scarcely reaching beyond the ends of the secondaries. Color entirely white, the 

 sexes alike. Young, pale grayish." 



Olor columbianus (Okd.). 



WHISTLING SWAN. 

 PLATE VIII. 



Migratory; rare. Arrive the middle of March; begin to re- 

 turn in October. 



B. 561r^ R. 588. C. fiSO. G. 274, 47. U. 180. 



