SWANS. 14 J} 



arc found in Soutli Africn, ;\[a(lagascar, India, and Australia. Notwitlistanding their 

 size, wliith is not greater than tliat of a teal, they are true geese with a tyjiical herniele hill. 

 They are excellent swimmers, however, and j)ass the greater part of their life on the 

 water, thus differing from most other geese. The Indian species (Nl coromatidelicus), 

 is described as having a peculiar shufHing gait when on land, as " after walking a few 

 steps they always squat." Jerdon thinks it iirobahle that in the wild state they never 

 alight on the land. 



The swans are distinguished lij' the extraordinary elongation of the neck, which is 

 affected 1)\' the great luinihcr of cervical vertcbi-a', and not by their Ix'ing unusually 

 lengthened, as is the case with most other loiig-neckcd birds. There are tio occipital 

 foramina as in most other ducks, and the pelvis is considerably lengthened and rather 

 narrowed in the postacctabular region. The feet are placed far back, indicating that 

 the swans are more at homo on the water than ou the laiul, as is also eviilent from the 

 shortness of the tarsus. The base of the bill, which is anatine in its form, and the 

 loral region are naked in the adults. The swans are highly ornamental on ponds and 

 lakes, and several of the species are kept in senu-domestication for that purpose, 

 especially those with a gracefully cuiwed neck. They inhabit the temperate regions 

 both north and south of the equator, one genus with one species being jieculiar to 

 Australia, one to South America ; one genus is circumpolar, and the fourth is Palaaarc- 

 tic ; Africa alone has no swans at the present day, This group is ajiparently nearer 

 related to the ducks j)roper than to the geese, but from the caverns of Malta is known 

 a gigantic fossil form, Palceocijgnus falconeri, which, on account of its high, stout, and 

 short-tt)ed feet, seems to take an intermediate position between geese and swans. 



The discovery of Australia altered many an Old World notion in regard to ani- 

 mals and i>lants, and the saying " white as a swan " had to be modified when the Aus- 

 tr.alian black swan {C/ienopis atrata) was discovered towards the end of the last 

 century. It is a most beautiful species; the neck is very long and thin, its curvature 

 very graceful, and the inner wing-feathers are curled and raised; the color is entirely 

 didl black, with white on the wing; the eye is red, and the bill vivid carmine, 

 adorned with a white cross-band. It is entirely acclimatized in the northern hemi- 

 sphere. The white swans of the genus Olor, of which two sjjecies arc i)eculiar to the 

 Pala;arctic region and two to this continent, do not carry their neck in an S-like carve 

 as do the other forms, but straight, more after the fashion of the geese. They have a 

 loud and sonorous voice, the resonant quality of which is due to the convolutions of the 

 windpipe within the breast-bone, similar to the arrangement already described in some 

 cranes. The trumpeters or whistling-swans breed chiefly in the Arctic regions, mi- 

 grating southwards in winter. Somewhat similar in ai)]icarance, on account of the 

 dazzlingly white i)lumagc, but differing in having a most elegantly S-likc neck, a high 

 frontal knob, wedge-shaped tail, and simple windjiipe, is the European so-called tame 

 or mute-swan (Cij;/)ihs ffibbits), the habitat of which seems to be the western temper- 

 ate portion of the I'ahcarctic region. When tliis snow-white bird with the scarlet bill 

 is leisurely swimming, the wing-feathers half raised like sails, and the neck doubly 

 curved, it certainly is one of the most majestic and beautiful members of the feathercil 

 tribes. Among water birds it h.as no rival on the northern half of the globe, and it 

 is very doubtful it it does not even excel the South American black-necked swan 

 {Sthcnelides melancori/pha), the exquisite grace of which is beyond description. The 

 Jilumagc of the last-mentioned species is of the purest white, except on the head and 

 neck, which are of a velvety seal-brown of the darkest shade, in the most striking con- 



