NATATORES. 347 



mental of its feathered tribes, but is so exclusively an inha- 

 bitant of the southern and western districts, that no notice 

 has been recorded of its having been seen in Torres Straits, or 

 on any part of the north coast. 



The first notice on record respecting it occurs in a letter 

 written by Mr. Witsen to Dr. M. Lister about the year 1698, 

 in which he says, " Here is returned a ship, which by our 

 East India Company was sent to the south land called 

 Hollandia Nova ; " and adds that Black Swans, Parrots, and 

 many Sea Cows were found there. In 1726 two were 

 brought alive to Batavia, having been procured on the west 

 coast of Australia, near Dirk Hartog's Bay. Om- celebrated 

 countryman and navigator Cook observed it on several parts 

 of the coast, and from that time to the present it has attracted 

 the attention of every traveller in Australia, and been noticed 

 by most authors who have written upon its natural produc- 

 tions; still, all that has hitherto been placed upon record 

 has been mere notices of its existence, unaccompanied by 

 any information respecting its habits and economy, or the 

 extent of its range ; and my account will fall far short of 

 what the historian of so noble a bird ought to be able to 

 give J for our knowledge of it is still very hmited, and must 

 necessarily remain so until geographical research has cleared 

 our path, and made us more intimately acquainted with the 

 portions of the country it principally inhabits. 



I may state that the Black Swan is generally distributed 

 over the whole of the southern portion of Australia, the 

 islands in Bass's Straits, and the still more southern country 

 of Tasmania, wherever there are rivers, estuaries of the sea, 

 lagoons, and pools of water of any extent ; in some instances 

 it occurs in such numbers that flocks of many hundreds may 

 be seen together, particularly on those arms of the sea which, 

 after passing the beach-line of the coast, expand into great 

 sheets of shallow water, on which the birds are seldom dis- 

 turbed either by the force of boisterous winds or the intru- 



