478 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
this is not always effective, as the small boy of the period, one of the 
most predacious of animals, sometimes succeeds in evading the vigi- 
lance of the watchmen and robbing the nest. The little nestlings, 
or cygnets, are covered with a soft gray down, which lasts for some 
months. 
The ancients evidently supposed that swans must always be white, 
for the Latin poet Juvenal was the author of the well-known satirical 
comparison, “‘as rare as a black swan’’; but they knew nothing of 
Australia, which has given us a fine jet-black species, which may be 
seen in the park. We also have two beautiful so species—the 
whistling and the trumpeter swans. 
THE DUCKS. 
In the valley below the flying cage a little pool has been formed 
and an inclosure in which a number of varieties of ducks may be 
seen. One of the most striking of these is the mandarin, whose 
particolored and checkered plumage has been compared to a crazy 
quilt. A number of these were presented to the park by the zoological 
garden at Tokyo, Japan, through the good offices of Dr. Alexander 
Graham Bell. Another very beautiful duck is the American wood- 
duck, not so bizarre in appearance as the mandarin, but possessing 
almost as great a variety of plumage. The redhead, the pintail, the 
shoveler, and the mallard may also be seen. 
