2104 FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS 



1 880-8 1 reduced the number of swans to about eight hundred, an average which has 

 been since maintained. 



A considerable amount of discussion has taken place as to whether the so-called 

 Polish swan (C. immutabilis} , distinguished by the smaller size of the tubercle on 

 the beak, the black edges to the gape, and the slaty legs, as well by the plumage of 

 the cygnets being often white from birth, is entitled to rank as a distinct species. 

 It is, however, very probable that the distinctive features of tjie bird itself may be 

 due to immaturity; while the white plumage of the cygnets may be merely an effect 

 of domestication. 



The handsome black-necked swan (C. nie-ricollis} from Chili, Areren- 

 Black-Necked 



tina, and other southern districts of South America, is easily distin- 



Swan 



guished from all the preceding by the black head and neck; the rest of 

 the plumage being white, and the lores and base of the beak red. It agrees with the 

 mute swan in having the tail long and wedge shaped, but differs in the scalloped 

 margin of the web of the toes. 



This Australian species (C. artratus] differs from all its congeners, 



not only in the predominant hue of the adult plumage being blackish, 

 but also by the young having feathered lores, and likewise by the extreme short- 

 ness of the tail, and the crispness of the scapular and inner secondary feathers. 

 The naked parts of the head and the skin at the base of the beak are red, and the 

 feathers of the pinion white, but otherwise the bird is black. Inferior in size to 

 the whooper, this elegant bird is far less shy than the majority of its genus; and 

 when flying overhead at night utters a decidedly musical call note. In Victoria the 

 " Old Bushman " writes that after the young birds could fly, black swans were com- 

 mon "on all the large swamps and lagoons, sometimes in good-sized flocks, but 

 generally in small companies, which I took to be old birds and birds of the year. 

 Early in summer they retired to their breeding haunts, and we saw very little of them 

 again till the swamps and water holes filled. They appear to breed in August and 

 September. The nest is a large heap of rushes, and the female lays five to seven 

 dirty white eggs, not so large as those of tte mute swan." It is added that the 

 islands in Westernport bay are favorite nesting sites. Being a bird of heavy flight, 

 the black swan always endeavors to save itself, if possible, by swimming rather 

 than by taking wing. 



Remains of the whooper and Bewick's swan in the superficial de- 

 Fossil Swans .. , A _., 1-1 



and Geese P oslts * tlie Thames valley indicate that those birds were contempo- 

 raries of the mammoth; while, in the Miocene of Malta, Falconer's 

 swan ( C. falconeri ) was of larger size than any existing form, from which it differed 

 by its extremely-short and goose-like toes. Bones of the existing species of 

 European geese are found in the same deposits as those yielding the remains of 

 modern swans; while an extinct species (C. ceningensis] , of the size of the bean 

 goose, occurs in the Miocene rocks of Baden. 



Before coming to the more typical ducks, there are three genera demanding^ 

 a brief notice, which to a certain extent, connect the ducks with the geese, and thus 

 render the classification of the family so difficult. The comb ducks, of which there 

 is an Indian (Sarcidiornis melanonotus} , an African (S. africanus] , and a tropical 



