StfTHERLANDlA SWAN. 



741 



ncrs and numbers of this, which is really the most 

 rare of the two, have sometimes been given to the 

 other, which is a larger and bolder animal, and met 

 with in herds, whereas the collared one seems to be 

 more retiring and seldom met with except in pairs. 



The While-lipped Peccary (D. Labiatus) is a larger 

 animal than the collared one, and appears to be more 

 numerous. The hairs or bristles upon it are much 

 larger, and as the annuli of white occupy a very small 

 portion of the hair, as compared with that occupied 

 by the black, the general colour approaches to black, 

 except on the rump, where it is brownish. The bris- 

 tles are very long throughout the whole line of the 

 back, and have their upright position whether the 

 animal is in a state of excitement or not ; those on the 

 neck, from the occiput to the shoulders, form a sort of 

 permanent crest. The under jaw is entirely white, and 

 there is a considerable quantity of white on the mar- 

 gin of the upper one. The white on the jaws con- 

 tinues beyond the angle of the gape and turns upward 

 in the direction of the ear. The young of the year 

 are reddish in the hair or bristles of the upper part ; 

 but they lose this and acquire the colour already men- 

 tioned when they come to maturity. This is appa- 

 rently (for there is not a little confusion in the accounts 

 of them) the species which is said to be formidable, 

 not only to the smaller species of cats which are found 

 in the forests of tropical America, but to the jaguar 

 and even to man himself; but there does not appear 

 to be much truth in these statements ; and the jaguar 

 is said to follow the herds of these animals something 

 in the same way that the lion follows the antelope and 

 the quaggas in Southern Africa, pouncing upon one 

 after another according as he is prompted by his ap- 

 petite. There is, however, so much confusion in the 

 accounts that are given of these two species, that one 

 scarcely knows where the truth is to be found. 



The odour given out by the dorsal gland of this 

 one, appears from the accounts to have more of a 

 musky smell and less of the odour of garlic than that 

 given out by the collared species ; but this cannot be 

 implicitly depended upon, as in this, as well as in al- 

 most every other respect, the two appear to have been 

 very much confounded with each other. It is also 

 probable that the statement that the collared pecca- 

 ries are found in packs, and the white-lipped ones in 

 pairs only, may have arisen from the observation of 

 them at different seasons. The whole of the hog 

 family are found in pairs in the early part of the 

 brooding time, and all the others are found in packs, 

 when the young are able to shift for themselves ; and 

 it is by no means likely that animals resembling each 

 other so closely in other respects as the two species 

 of peccary do, should differ so widely in this particu- 

 lar habit. There is, at least, no parallel case in any 

 other genus, or even family of vertebrated animals. 

 Roebucks, it is true, koep in pairs all the year round ; 

 while other deer live in herds, with the males, gene- 

 rally speaking, apart from the females. But then, the 

 deer which have this habit, do not pair at any season ; 

 but are polygamous. 



The males and females differ but little in their exter- 

 nal appearance ; but the young which are littered 

 early in the season, are greyish red on the upper part, 

 and have usually more white on the under jaw than 

 the adults. They do not acquire the full colours of 

 the adult state till they are a year old ; and as till then 

 they are different from both the species when mature, 

 they have sometimes been described as a third. 



Such is a brief outline of the principal members of 

 this interesting family of animals a family of which 

 the species belonging to the eastern continent are 

 peculiarly useful to man, can be kept in situations 

 where no other useful animal can be kept, and which 

 fill up a place in the economy of the farm, which, but 

 for them, would be an unprofitable blank. 



SUTHERLANDIA (Hort. Kewensis). A fine 

 ornamental shrub from the Cape of Good Hope. 

 The flowers are diadelphous, and followed by pods, 

 of course the plant belongs to LeguminoscE. It ripens 

 seeds in abundance. 



SWAINSONIA (Salisbury). A genus of shewy 

 plants, nearly related to Sutherlandia, natives of New 

 South Wales, and belonging to Leguminoste. They 

 thrive if potted in any light soil, and are easily 

 propagated. 



SWAN (Cygnus). A genus of web-footed swim- 

 ming birds, wliich are found on the rivers and small 

 pools of fresh water, rather than the sea or the larger 

 lakes, and which, when they do appear on these, are 

 always near the shores, and never on the expanse of 

 the broad waters. The chief reason of this is that 

 they are vegetable feeders, and although their long 

 necks enable them to reach the bottom at considera- 

 ble depths, they never dive, and they rarely feed 

 upon the land, or in any other mode than by floating 

 on the surface of the water. They are among the 

 most ornamental of all the water birds, on account of 

 their great size, the gracefulness of their forms and 

 motions, and the snowy whiteness of the plumage of 

 those species with which we are most familiar. Swans 

 have, from the remotest antiquity, attracted the atten- 

 tion of poets and other describers, and the ancient 

 fable of their acquiring a musical song when the}' are 

 dying, instead of the husky voice which they have 

 when alive, is still repeated though wholly destitute 

 of foundation. That it should be true would, indeed, 

 be contrary to the whole analogy of nature, the voices 

 of pain, and especially at the hour of death in ani- 

 mals, being, without a single exception, unpleasant to 

 the ear. Even those song birds whose notes are the 

 most mellifluously sweet when they are in good health, 

 are all painful to" hear when they meet with a violent 

 death, the only time at which they utter unpleasirig 

 sounds is when that catastrophe is approaching them. 



In some of the species, the swans approach the 

 geese in many of their characters, while the typical 

 ones differ considerably. The leading characters of 

 the swans, considered as a genus, or as a subgenus of 

 Anas are these : the bill as wide at the tip as at the 

 basal part, and the height at the base ; the nostrils 

 are pierced about the middle of the length of the bill, 

 and the neck is very long as compared with that of any 

 of the other web-footed birds. Swans feed upon seeds, 

 roots, and various parts of plants which are blanched 

 and succulent by being under the water. They there- 

 fore have the gizzard strong and muscular, and the 

 intestines and caecal appendages very long. It is 

 sometimes said that they eat various kinds of aquatic 

 animals, but the fact of' their doing so is not clearly 

 established. They are to a considerable extent social 

 animals ; and where there is sufficient scope and they 

 are not disturbed, they are found in troops, more or 

 less numerous, according to circumstances. In the 

 breeding time they are strictly monogamous ; and the 

 pairs take up their nesting-grounds at some distance 

 from each other. They sometimes, however, fight 

 stout battles of gallantry for the females, which battles 



