410 HISTORY OF 



now a doubt whether there be any of the tame kind in a state of 

 nature. The wild swan, though so strongly resembling this in 

 colour and form, is yet a different bird ; for it is very differently 

 formed within. The wild swan is less than the tame by almost 

 a fourth ; for as the one weighs twenty pounds, the other only 

 weighs sixteen pounds and three quarters. The colour of the 

 tame swan is all over white ; that of the wild bird is, along the 

 back and the tips of the wings, of an ash-colour. But these are 

 slight differences compared to what are found upon dissection. 

 In the tame swan, the windpipe sinks down into the lungs in the 

 ordinary manner ; but in the wild, after a strange and wonderful 

 contortion, like what we have seen in the crane, it enters through 

 a hole formed in the breast-bone ; and being reflected therein, re- 

 turns by the same aperture ; and being contracted into a narrow 

 compass by a broad and bony cartilage, it is divided into two 

 branches, which, before they enter the lungs, are dilated, and, as 

 it were, swollen out into two cavities. 



Such is the extraordinary difference between these two ani- 

 mals, which extei'nally seem to be of one species. Whether it 

 is in the power of long-continued captivity and domestication to 

 produce this strange variety, between birds otherwise the same, 

 I will not take upon me to determine. But certain it is, that 

 our tame swan is no where to be found, at least in Europe, in a 

 state of nature. 



As it is not easy to account for this difference of conforma- 

 tion, so it is still more difficult to reconcile the accounts of the 



what inferior in size to the Wild and Tame Swans of the Old World ; but 

 are perfectly black in every part of their plumage, with the exception of the 

 primary and a few of the secondary quill-feathers, which are white. Their 

 bill is of a bright red above, and is surmounted at the base in the male by a 

 Blight protuberance, which is wanting in the female. Towards its anterior 

 part it is crossed by a whitish band. The under part of the bill is of a gray- 

 ish white J and the legs and feet are of a dull ash-colour. In every other 

 respect, except in the mode of convolution of its trachea, this bird so per- 

 fectly corresponds with its well known congeners, that it is only necessary 

 to refer to the articles in wliich we shall hereafter describe those beautiful 

 species for an account of the characters which are common to tliem all 

 The Black Swans are found as well in Van Diemen's Land as in New South 

 Wales and on the western coast of New Holland. They are generally seen 

 in flocks of eight or nine together, floating on a lake ; and when disturbed, 

 flying off like wild geese in a direct line one after the other. They are said 

 to be extremely shy, so as to render it diflicult to approach within giuisliot 

 of them. 



