244 



British Bii'ds. 



this country, the individual in question ma\' have been an escaped bird. The 

 Trumpeter Swan belongs to the section of the genus Cygnus which has no knob 

 on the base of the bill, and the trachea enters the hollow keel of the sternum. There 

 is no }-ellow at the base of the bill, which is large and has the culmen nearly four 

 inches in lensjth. 



THE ANTARCTIC 



SHEATHBILL. 



[Chionts alba.) 



Page 192. Add: — 



A specimen of this curious species was killed at Car- 

 lingford Lighthouse, in Co. Down, in December, 1892. 

 It was exhibited at a meetmg of the Zoological Societ}- on 

 the 28th of February, 1893, by Mr. R. M. Barrington. 

 The bird belongs to a purely Antarctic genus, and it must have escaped from con- 

 finement, though the condition of its plumage did not indicate that it had been 

 recently kept in captivity. The species is pure white in plumage, with a yellow bill, 

 ornamented with the curious ' sheath ' at the base of the mandible, whence the 

 Sheath-bills take their name. 



Finis. 



