348 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



sions of the natives. In the white man, however, the Black 

 Swan finds an enemy so deadly, that in many parts where it 

 was formerly numerous it has been almost, if not entirely, 

 extirpated ; and this has been particularly the case on some 

 of the large rivers of Tasmania, such as the Derwent, &c. ; 

 but in the salt lagoons and inlets of D'Entrecasteaux's 

 Channel, the little-frequented bays of the southern and west- 

 ern shores of that island, the entrance to Melbourne Harbour 

 at Port Philip, Spencer's and St. Vincent's Gulfs in South Au- 

 stralia, the Clarence, MacLeay and other rivers northward of 

 the Hunter in New South Wales, the Black Swan is still 

 numerous. One most destructive mode by which vast num- 

 bers are annually destroyed is that of chasing the birds in a 

 boat at the time they shed their primary quill-feathers, when 

 being unable to fly they are soon rowed down and captured ; 

 this practice, which is much to be regretted, is usually re- 

 sorted to for the sake of the beautiful down with vrhich the 

 breasts are clothed, but not unfrequently in mere wantonness. 

 I have heard of the boats of a whaler entering an estuary and 

 returning to the ship, nearly filled with Black Swans destroyed 

 in this manner. 



When flying it forms a most conspicuous object, the white 

 of the wings offbring a strong contrast to the black colouring 

 of its body and the green herbage bounding the scene in 

 which it is disporting. 



The breeding-season commences in October and continues 

 to the middle of January ; I procured newly-hatched young 

 clothed in greyish white down at South Port River on the 

 31st of December, and I took five newly-laid eggs on Plinders' 

 Island, in Bass's Straits, on the 13th of January. The nest 

 is of a large size, composed of flags and other herbage, and 

 generally placed on an isolated island. The eggs are from 

 five to eight in number, of a pale green, stained all over with 

 buffy brown, four and a half inches long by two inches and 

 three-quarters broad. -'■ 



