452 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



has been met with on several occasions on the east- 

 ern coast of the United States, and has also been 

 procured in Bermuda. A Water-Rail {Ballus aqua- 

 ticus) alighted on the yard-arm of a man-of-war about 

 500 miles to the westward of Cape Clear, and at the 

 same distance from any known land (Yarrell, 4th 

 ed., vol. iii. p. 161). Several instances are on record 

 of the appearance in Great Britain of Purple Gallin- 

 ules, Porphyrio hyacintlmius, P. cMoronotus, and 

 smaragdonotus, in a quasi-wild state ; but these 

 birds are not migratory, and are frequently im- 

 ported. Doubtless those recorded had escaped from 

 some ornamental water, and indeed in some instances 

 their owners wrote to claim them, or at least to inti- 

 mate that they had lost birds which answered to 

 their description. See my article on Purple Gal- 

 linules in "Essays on Nat. Hist.," pp. 342-350; 

 Zool, 1884, p. 482, and 1886, p. 71. 



Order XT. ANSERES 



Fam. ANATID^. 



AMERICAN SWAN. Cygnus americanus, Sharpless.t 

 Length, 54 in. ; bill, 3-75 in. ; wing, 21-5 in. : tarsus, 

 4-25 in. 



Hab. North America. Breeds on the shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean, and migrates south to the Gulf of Mexico. 



In February 1841, Macgillivray obtained from a 

 poulterer in Edinburgh a specimen of this Swan, 



1 Gygnun americamis, Sharpless, Doughty 's "Cab. Xat. Hist.," i. p. 

 185, PI. xvi. (1830) ; Cygnus bewickii, Swainson, "Faun. Ror.-Amer.," 

 ii. p. 224 (1831) ; Cygnus colamhiims, Ord, in Guthrie's " Geogr.," 2ncl 

 Amer. ed., p. 319 (1815). 



