Flamingoes.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



39 



its manners are precisely the same. It is the 

 Phcenicopterus Chilensis of Molina, and the Ph. 

 ruber of Brisson and Bonaparte. 



1936. — The Little Flamingo 



(Ph/enicopterus parvus). This species is a native 

 of Africa, tenanting morasses and the borders of 

 lakes. Specimens have been brought from Senejja! 

 and the Cape of Good Hope. The lower mandible 

 is remarl;able for its great depth, and the boldness 

 of the arch formed by the upper edges, which com- 

 pletely receive within them those of the upper 

 mandible. The plumage of the adult is of a pure 

 rose, without a spot or streak, the centre of the wing- 

 coverts deepening into scarlet; tail-feathers black ; 

 base of the bill, cere, and region of the eye deep 

 purple ; middle of the lower mandible orange-red, 

 point black ; tarsus livid ; toes and space above the 

 tarsal joint red. Total length nearly three feet. 

 The young are white or whitish, marked with streaks 

 of brown on the head, neck, chest, and wing-coverts. 

 The rose tint first besfins to appear on the wings. 

 Bill black. Legs reddish livid. 



ORDER NATATORES. 



This order, agreeing with the Anseres of Linnaeus, 

 contains those families of birds which display de- 

 cidedly aquatic habits ; which swim with facility, 

 "ha-ntine: rivers, lakes, and seas, and whose whole 

 structure adapts them for their appointed station. 

 Hence have they obtained the expressive name of 

 Waterfowl. As a rule it may be observed that the 

 birds of this order are awkward on the land, and the 

 more so the more exclusively they tenant the water; 

 for, in order to the stroke of their paddle-feet being 

 -as effective as possible, the limbs are placed behind 

 the centre of gravity, and thrown, as for instance 

 in the Grebes, as far backwards as possible, and the 

 tarsi are short and compressed. Hence on the 

 ground these birds have either to maintain their 

 balance by dint of continual muscular exertion, as 

 we see in the swan when it labours over the grassy 

 bank, or, as in the grebe, they are oblisfed to assume 

 an erect attitude. The feet are webbed, but in a 

 different manner in different families. Among 

 the waders, the Phalaropes, in the structure of 

 their feet, approach nearest to certain groups, 

 while others are fully webbed ; and these the 

 flamingoes, among the waders, the most completely 

 resemble. In order to make the stroke, the foot is 

 ■first drawn forwards, when the toes close together 

 and the webs fold, so as to offer to the water the 

 lea^t possible resistance ; but when the back-stroke 

 is made, the toes spread out, while the action of the 

 limb is at the same time (in most instances) obliquely 

 outwards. 



Fig. 1937 represents the Feet of three Water-birds, 

 and of the Phalarope, by way of comparison : a is 

 the Foot of the Diver (Colymbus) ; b, that of the 

 Cormorant ; c, that of the Grebe, divided into dis- 

 tinct oar-blades, capable of overlapping each other ; 

 d is the lobated Foot of the Phalarope, approximat- 

 ing to a webbed character. 



The form of the body in the water-birds is boat- 

 like ; and in those that dive, the ribs are strong, and 

 carried down so as almost entirely to surround and 

 defend the internal viscera from undue pressure. 

 The plumage is thick, close, and water-proof. There 

 is a dense under-garment of down, overlaid by large, 

 sometimes silky, feathers, which throw oft' the water 

 AS if their surface was oiled. In many the neck is 

 long, and the tail very short ; in some the tail, com- 

 posed of rigid feathers, acts as a rudder in the act 

 of diving. A few are utterly incapable of flight, 

 but use their wings as paddles in the water. From 

 this order man has reclaimed several species for the 

 sake of their flesh, which is excellent. 



Family ANATID^ (DUCKS, SWANS, &c.). 



The family Anatidse comprehends the Swans, 

 Ducks, Geese, and Mergansers, distinguished by 

 webbed feet with the hind-toe free, and a depressed 

 Tiail-pointed bill, the mandibles being covered with 

 a sort of tough skin, and having laminated edges, 

 very similar to what we have contemplated in the 

 Flamingo. 



We place in juxfa-position with these birds a 

 specimen of that extraordinary animal the Ornitho- 

 rhynchus of Australia (Fig. 1938), in order to show 

 how, even among creatures coming within the pale of 

 the Mammalia, organization is adapted to particular 

 habits and instincts. In this quadruped, which in 

 many anatomical details approaches the reptiles, 

 but which is aquatic, and feeds like a duck, squash- 

 ing by a rapid action of the mandibles the mud and 

 water through the beak, and retaining insects and 

 mollusks, we find the feet largely webbed, and the 

 mouth transformed into a beak approximating in 

 shape to that of one of these birds, covered with a 

 sensitive tough skin, and laminated on the edges. 

 We can easily pardon those who, when the discovery 

 of this strange quadruped was first announced, were 



inclined to believe that a fabricated creature, which 

 had no real existence, had been prepared, com- 

 pounded of the beak and webbed feet of some water- 

 fowl, and the skin of a young otter, or other animal, 

 and imposed upon the too credulous naturalists of 

 our country. 



To return from the beak of the Ornithorynchus 

 to that of the duck, we may observe that it is at once 

 a feeler, a strainer, and an organ of prehension. 

 It is highly sensitive, and feels out food in the mud, 

 where it is used with singular address. The skin, 

 and especially the margins of the mandibles, are 

 freely supplied by fine branches of the fifth pair of 

 nerves (see the Skull of the Duck, Fig. 1939), which 

 endow it with a discriminating sensibility. 



We have said that it is a strainer, the edges being 

 laminated, or furnished with close-set, transverse 

 lamellae. These in some are more developed than 

 in other species, and in the Shoveller Duck (Rhyn- 

 chaspis Clypeata, Leach, Spathulea Clypeata, 

 Fleming) this lamination is at its maximum, and 

 presents the appearance in both mandibles of a fine 

 pectinated appendage, accompanied with great di- 

 latation and depression of the front part of the bill, 

 which is spatulate, or spoon-shaped. At Fig. 1940, 

 a represents a section of the tipper mandible of the 

 Shoveller, showing the development of the lami- 

 nation ; while b represents the lower jaw of the 

 Common Duck. 



In accordance with the sensibility and structure 

 of the beak in the Anatidae, is the tongue modified. 

 It is also a sensitive organ, and, instead of being 

 slender and horny, is large and fleshy, and furnished 

 on its margin and other parts with rough appendages. 

 The tongue, in fact, co-operates with the mandibles 

 in the discrimination and appropriation of food. 



Among other points to be noticed is the structure 

 of the trachea, which in certain groups presents in 

 the male a singular osseous drum, or capsule, just 

 before its bifurcation, differing in form according to 

 the species. In other forms, again, the trachea is 

 singularly convoluted before entering the chest. 

 The gizzard is strong and muscular; in many 

 species it is of enormous volume, and lined with a 

 very thick, tough, or almost horny coat, and is 

 capable of grinding down the shells of mussels and 

 other mollusks, on which they live, and for which 

 they dive with wonderful rapidity : we refer to such 

 species as the Scoter-Ducks (Oidemia) and the 

 Eider-Ducks (Somateria), birds which tenant the 

 sea. The Anatidse are dispersed over every part of 

 the globe, and are generally migratory in their 

 habits. Their flight is vigorous and rapid, and the 

 flocks assume during their aerial progress, definite 

 figures, as lines or wedges; generally at a very 

 great altitude. 



Fig. 1941 represents a Group of Water-fowl : — 

 a, the Teal (Querquedula Crecca, Stephens) ; b, the 

 Wigeon, male and female (Mareca Penelope, Selby) ; 

 c, the Tame Swan (Cygnus Olor) ; d, the Mallard, 

 or Wild Duck, male (Anas Boschas, Linn.) ; e, the 

 Tame Duck, male ; /, the Muscovy Duck, or Musk 

 Duck (Anas moschata); g, the Domestic Goose 

 (Anser palustris, Fleming ; Anser cinereus, Meyer). 



Of the Family Anatidae we shall first direct our 

 attention to the Swans, which constitute a distinct 

 and well-defined group, comprising several species. 



1941, c— The Tame Swan 



{Cygnm olor). Cygne of the French; Cigno and 

 Cigno reale of the Italians ; Schwan and Hocker 

 Schwan of the Germans ; Tarn Svane of the Danes ; 

 Alarch of the Welsh; Swan and Mute Swan, 

 English. The genus Cygnus is characterized by the 

 beak being of equal breadth throughout its length, 

 higher than wide at its base, and depressed at the 

 point ; both mandibles furnished along the edge with 

 transverse lamellae ; nostrils oblong and lateral near 

 the middle of the beak. Neck slender and very 

 long : legs short ; the hind-toe small and free. 



The tame or mute swan, so well known in a state 

 of semi-domestication on our ornamental sheels of 

 water, our lakes, meres, and large rivers, of which 

 it is so conspicuous an ornament, is not an aboriginal 

 of our islands, but is found in the eastern portions 

 of Europe and the adjacent parts of Asia, where 

 inland seas, vast lakes, and extensive morasses afford 

 it a congenial home. In Siberia and some parts of 

 Russia it is common, and abounds on the shores of 

 the Caspian Sea. It is migratory in its habits. 



When this graceful bird was introduced into 

 England we cannot ascertain ; we find, however, that 

 at an early period it was regarded as royal pioperty, 

 and under the protection of authorized swan-herds, 

 or masters of the King's swans, while the stealing 

 of one of these birds, or of the eggs of swans out of 

 their nests, was punished with great severity. 



The following observations relative to the right of 

 keeping swans are taken from the 'Penny Cyclo- 

 paedia ;' they are evidently drawn up by one of the 

 "juris legumque periti," and the references are 

 made to some works which we have never read : — 

 " In England the swan is said to be a bird royal, in 



which no subject can have property, when at large 

 in a public river or creek, except by grant from the 

 crown. In creating this privilege, the crown grants 

 a swan-mark (cygninota), for a game of swans, called 

 in law Latin deductus (a pastime, un dcduit) cyg- 

 norum, sometimes volatus cygnorum. (7 Coke's 

 Hep., 17.) In Scotland the swan is said not to be a 

 royal bird (Erskine's Instit., b. ii., tit. 6),; but whilst 

 all proprietors in that country have the right of 

 fowling within their own grounds, swans, unless 

 specially granted, appear to be reserved to the 

 crown. (Stair's Instit., b. ii., t. 3, s. 60 : and see 

 Ducange, Cygnos lialKtidi jus.) In the reign of 

 Elizabeth upwards of 900 corporations and indi- 

 viduals had their distinct swan-marks, some of 

 which may be seen in Yarrell's ' British Birds,' vol. 

 iii., 121, &c. 



"Sometimes, though rarely, the crown, instead of 

 granting a swan-mark, confers the still greater pri- 

 vilege of enjoying the prerogative right (within a 

 certain district) of seizing white swans not marked. 

 Thus the Abbot of Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire, had 

 a game of wild swans in the aestuary formed by the 

 Isle of Portland and the Chesil Bank. The swannery 

 at Abbotsbury is the largest in the kingdom, which, 

 though formerly considerably more extensive, still 

 numbers many hundreds of these birds, forming an 

 object of considerable attraction and interest to 

 those who visit this part of the south coast : it is 

 now vested ia the Earl of Ilchester, to whose an- 

 cestor it was granted on the dissolution of the mo- 

 nasteries. (7 Co. Rep. 17 ; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 538.) 

 "The privilege of having a swan-mark, or game of 

 swans, is a freehold of inheritance, and may be 

 granted over. But by 22 Edw. I'V., c. 6, no person, 

 other than the king's sons, shall have a swan-mark, 

 or game of swans, unless he has freehold lands or 

 tenements of the clear yearly value of five marks 

 {31. 6s. fid.), on pain of forfeiture of the swans, one 

 moiety to the king and the other to any qualified 

 person who makes the seizure. In the first year of 

 Richard III. the inhabitants of Crowland, in Lincoln- 

 shire, were exempted from the operation of this act 

 upon their petition setting forth that their town 

 stood ' all in marsh and fen,' and that they had 

 great games of swans, ' by which the greatest part 

 of their relief and living had been sustained.' (6 

 Rot. Pari., 260.) 



" The city of Oxford has a game of swans by pre- 

 scription, though none are now kept. In the 

 sixteenth century (when a state dinner was not com- 

 plete unless a swan was included in the bill of fare) 

 this game of swans was rented upon an engagement 

 to deliver yearly four fat swans and to leave six old 

 swans at the end of the term. By the corporation 

 books it also appears that in 1.557 barley was pro- 

 vided for the young birds at lid. a bushel, and that 

 tithes were then paid of swans. 



" Two of the London Companies have games of 

 swans, the Dyers' and the Vintners' Company, and 

 are, with the crown, the principal owners of swans 

 in the Thames. In August, 1841, the queen had 

 232, the Dyers 105, and the 'Vintners 100 swans in 

 the river. Formerly the Vintners alone had 500. 

 The swan-mark of the Dyers' Company is a notch, 

 called a ' nick,' on one side of the beak. The swans 

 of the Vintners' Company, being notched or nicked 

 on each side of the beak, are jocularly called 'swans 

 with two necks,' a term which has long been used as 

 a sign by one of the large inns in London. 



"On the first Monday in August in every year the 

 swan-markers of the crown and the two Companies 

 of the city of London go up the river for the pur- 

 pose of inspecting and taking an account of the 

 swans belonging to their respective employers, and 

 marking the young birds. In antient documents 

 this annual expedition is called swan-upping, and 

 the persons employed are denominated swan-uppers. 

 These are still the designations used amongst the 

 initiated, though popularly corrupted into swan- 

 hopping and swan-hoppers. 



" The swan-markers proceed to the different parts 

 of the river frequented by the swans for breeding, 

 and other places where the birds are kept. They 

 pay half-a-crown for each young bird to the fisher- 

 men who have made nests for the old birds, and 

 two shillings per week to any person who during the 

 winter has taken care of the swans by sheltering 

 them in ponds or otherwise protecting them from 

 the severity of the weather." 



Fig. 1942 is a representation of the Royal Swan- 

 mark used in the last three reigns, and in the pre- 

 sent, given by Mr. Yarrell, in whose valuable work 

 on British birds will be found a mass of curious in- 

 formation on this subject, together with delineations 

 of sixteen different swan-marks. 



Fig. 1943 represents the Head of the tame Swan 

 (Cygnus olor), remarkable for the development of 

 the black naked cere, at the base which extends to 

 the eye, rising on the anterior part of the forehead 

 in the form of a large prominence, more conspicu- 

 ous in the male than the female. The beak gene- 

 rally is of an orange red, with the exception of the 



