Screamers, Ducks, Geese, and Swans 



463 



and fetching, if purchased alive at the pit, about two guineas each. The pit is con- 

 structed of brickwork, and is about 74 feet long, 32 feet wide, and 6 feet deep the water, 

 admitted from the river, being about 2 feet deep. The food is placed in floating troughs. 

 The birds, " when so disposed," says Mr. Southwell, " leave the water by walking up a 

 sloping stage, and thus obtain access to a railed-in enclosure, where they may rest and preen 

 themselves." 



The beautiful swan-like carriage, so familiar in the floating bird, seems to belong only to 

 the mute swan, the other species of white swans carrying the neck more or less straight, and 

 keeping the wings closely folded to the body. 



No greater anomally could at one time have been imagined than a BLACK SWAN. For 

 centuries it was considered to be an impossibility. We owe the discovery of such a bird to 

 the Dutch navigator Willem de Vlaming, who, more than 200 years ago, captured the first 

 specimen at the mouth of what is now known, in consequence, as the Swan Elver. A year 

 after their capture accounts reached England through the burgomaster of Amsterdam, and 

 these were published by the Eoyal Society in 1698. The bird is now fairly common on 

 ornamental waters, where its sooty-black plumage, set off by pure white quill-feathers and 

 coral-red bill, contrasts strongly with the typical snow-white mute swan, generally kept 

 with it. 



Equally interesting is the handsome BLACK-NECKED SWAN of South America. In this 

 species the plumage is pure white, save that of the neck, which is black. The distribution 

 of this species is practically the same as that of the Coscoroba swan. Breeding freely in 

 confinement, it has become a fairly common bird on ornamental waters. It shares with 

 the mute swan the reputation of gracefulness when afloat, swimming with the neck curved 

 and wings raised. 



Photo by W. Reid] 



AUSTBALIAN BLACK SWANS AND CYGNETS. 

 The cygnets are light-coloured, like those of the white swans 



[Withaio, N.L. 



