TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



167 



i^ .^.-- 



BLACK SWANS AXD CVGXETS 

 From Living Animals of the World 



period of moult is practically helpless, it being then an easy matter 

 to row them down and to break their necks with an oar. 



Another phase of man's dominion in the realm of the Black 

 Swan is his introduction of this bird into New Zealand, that long 

 suffering country, whose indigenous fauna and flora seems well 

 on the road to extinction before the overwhelming advance of 

 foreign importations. Separated as completely, geographically 

 speaking, from Australia as that region is from the rest of the 

 world, restricted competition has evolved in New Zealand no 

 natural check to these creatures — mammalian and avian — which 

 have spread like a ravaging fire, ousting the rightful inhabitants 

 from forest and plain. The first Black Swans introduced were 

 carefully protected by law, and, after the early difficulties in the 

 way of adaptation to new conditions were overcome, they in- 

 creased without check or hindrance. 



Mr. E. F. Stead, w^io has personally witnessed present condi- 

 tions in New Zealand, reports that swans may now be seen there 

 in great flocks, sometimes of five and six thousand individuals. 

 They are driving away all ducks and geese, not by actual aggres- 



