372 BIRDS. 



near its bifurcation into capsules of various forms. The gizzard is large, 

 and very muscular, the ceeca long. The great genus, 



Anas, Li7i. 



Comprises those Palmipedes, the edges of whose large and broad bill are 

 furnished with a range of thin salient laminae, placed transversely, which 

 appear destined to allow the water to pass off when the bird has seized its 

 prey. They are divided into three subgenera, whose limits, however, are 

 not very precise. 



Cygnus, Meyer. 



The Swans have the bill of an equal breadth throughout, higher at its 

 base than it is wide; the nostrils about the middle of its length; the neck 

 is very long. They are the largest birds of the genus, and feed chiefly 

 on the seeds and roots of aquatic plants. Their intestines and caeca in 

 particular are consequently very long. There is no inflation of the trachea. 

 Two species are found in Europe. 



Anas olor, Gm. ; Cigne a bee rouge, Enl. 913. (The Red-billed 

 or Domestic Swan). Bill red, edged with black, surmounted at the 

 base by a rounded protuberance ; the plumage snow-white. When 

 young the bill is lead-coloured and the plumage grey. This is the 

 species, when domesticated, that forms the ornament of our ponds 

 and grounds. The gentleness of its motions, the elegance of its 

 form, the brilliant whiteness of its plumage, contribute to make it 

 the emblem of beauty and innocence. It lives indifferently on fish 

 and vegetables, flies at a great elevation, and with considerable ra- 

 pidity, and swims swiftly, availing itself of the wind by means of its 

 wings, vdiich further serve it as a powerful weapon to strike the enemy 

 by whom it is attacked. 



Jn. cygnus, Gm. ; Edw. 150; Brit. Zool. pi. 1; Naum., Ed, I, 

 t. 13, f. 27. Cigne a bee noir. (The Black-billed Swan). Bill 

 black, with a yellow base ; the body white tinged with a yellowish- 

 grey — when young, all grey. This species, which is very similar 

 externally to the preceding one, differs essentially from it internally, 

 in the trachea, which is bent over and penetrates to a considerable 

 extent in a cavity of the keel of the sternum, a peculiarity common to 

 both sexes, which does not exist in the domestic Swan. The latter 

 is also erroneously called the fVild Swan, and the Singing Swan. 

 The story of its singing on the approach of death is a fable. 



An. plutonia, Sh.; A. atrata, Lath.; Cigne noir; Nat. Misc. pi. 

 108; Vieill. Gal. 286 (The Black Swan), has been lately discovered 

 in New Holland; it is the size of the common species, but its car- 

 riage is less graceful and elegant; it is all black, the primary quills 

 excepted, which are white, and the bill with the naked skin on its 

 base, which is red*. 



It is impossible to separate from the swans, certain species, much less 



* TheO/e a cravatle {An. canadensis, L.), Eul. 346, Wils. LXVII, 4, appears to me 

 to be a true swan. 



