TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 165 



a band and tipped with white ; the iris of the eye is brilHant scar- 

 let, and the feet are black. 



Early in the year 1697 the Dutch navigator Vlaming sailed 

 into a great estuary on the coast of western Australia and up a 

 river which was covered with multitudes of Black Swans. Pre- 

 vious to this the term " black swan "' had come into current use 

 as signifying something inconceivable, something contrary to all 

 the laws of nature; " Rara az'is in fcrris, iiigroqiic slinilliina 

 cygiw." So we can easily understand how the finding of this 

 bird, succeeded by subsequent remarkable discoveries of other 

 strange creatures in Australia, led to a widespread belief that 

 in that land everything was topsy-turvy. 



The Black Swan gathers together a large pile of sticks, leaves, 

 and reeds, with a few feathers for a lining, and upon it lays from 

 four to eight large greenish-white eggs. This rough nest is 

 placed in a dense growth of reeds, or at the base of a tree far out 

 near the centre of some shallow lagoon. In such a place, before 

 the advent of man, the bird had little to fear, save from an occa- 

 sional eagle, which might snatch up a cygnet, or from the several 

 species of water-rats { Hydromys), whose depredations among 

 both eggs and newly hatched young were doubtless far more to 

 be dreaded. Both parents take turns in incubating, and woe to 

 the nest which is left miguarded for a moment. The regular 

 breeding season lasts from September to January. It is said that 

 when the nesting lagoon dries up, the parents will lead the young 

 overland to the nearest water, and always by night, in order to 

 avoid the attacks of raptorial birds. 



The dark color of the adult birds must assimilate well with 

 the shadowy waters of the shallow lagoons, and whether of 

 advantage as an active protective character or not, it is certainly 

 a fact that the white spot formed by the flight feathers, when 

 the wing is folded, is a perfect representation of a hole through 

 the bird. When seen from a distance this white spot neutralizes 

 to a remarkable degree the symmetrical bird-like appearance 

 of the outline of the swan. On one or two occasions pure white 

 individuals have been observed. The cygnets resemble young- 

 swans of other species in being brownish-gray in color. 



Black Swans seem to have no regular routes of migration, but 

 they are by no means wholly resident, for they make long jour- 

 neys to the coast and irregularly across the countrv. They are 

 fond of feeding in the brackish and salt-water swamps and lagoons 

 along the sea-shore. 



When flocks of several hundred of these swans are gathered 



