OTHER SWANS 



black swan, in any case, is a precise contrast to swans in 

 general. All the European forms, and those of North 

 America, about seven species in all, are white. On the 

 other hand, Cygnus atratm of Australia is approached, 

 through longo intervallo, by the black-necked swan of 

 South America (Cygnus nigricollis), which is white with 

 the exception of its black neck. The real black swan is 

 not altogether black. Animals that are either white or 

 black are seldom perfectly so. Few are so black as 

 popular works and general opinion paint them, even 

 inhabitants of more torrid climes than Australia. About 

 the wings are a few white feathers ; and the rich crimson 

 skin about the beak and face is well known. It is note- 

 worthy that this redness of visage accompanies the 

 darkening of the general hues. The white swans of the 

 Old World have for the most part yellow patches of naked 

 skin about the face. With the blackening of the feathers 

 is a concomitant darkening of this yellow into red. That 

 there is nothing really remarkable about the black swan 

 of Australia except its blackness, is shown by the fact 

 that its cygnets are exactly of the usual ugly duckling 

 coloration, a dingy grey. This bird is also in every 

 other respect a true swan. A swan is a little difficult to 

 define. The swans, ducks, and geese form a highly 

 natural assemblage of birds which hardly need charac- 

 terization, so plainly can they be identified as such by 

 the veriest tyro. Furthermore, every one knows for all 

 practical purposes which are swans and which are ducks, 

 though to tell geese, not from swans, indeed, but from 

 ducks, is not so easy a task. But when we come to 

 write down in cold and logical black and white the dis- 

 tinctions between a swan and a duck, there is really 

 little besides length of neck which can be used. If it 

 were not so grave an anachronism, one might suppose 

 that the poetical remembrance of the song of the dying 

 swan might have come from this Australian bird, which 



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