DUCKS. 339 



feathers of the pinion white, but otherwise the bird is black. Inferior in size to 

 the whooper, this elegant bird is far less shy than the majority of its genus ; and 

 when flying overhead at night utters a decidedly musical call-note. In Victoria 

 the " Old Bushman " writes that after the young birds can fly, black swans were 

 common " on all the large swamps and lagoons ; sometimes in good-sized flocks, but 

 generally in small companies, which I took to be old birds and birds of the year. 

 Early in summer they retire to their breeding-haunts, and we saw very little of 

 them again till the swamps and water-holes filled. They appear to breed in August 

 and September. The nest is a large heap of rushes, and the female lays five to 

 seven dirty white eggs, not so large as those of the mute swan." It is added that 

 the islands in Westernport Bay are favourite nesting-sites. Being a bird of heavy 

 flight, the black swan always endeavours to save itself, if possible, by swimming 

 rather than by taking wing. 



Possii Swans and Remains of the whooper and Bewick's swan in the superficial 

 Geese. deposits of the Thames Valley indicate that those birds were contem- 

 poraries of the mammoth; while, in the Miocene of Malta, Falconer's swan 

 {C. falconeri) was of larger size than any existing form, from which it differed by 

 its extremely short and goose-like toes. Bones of the existing species of European 

 geese are found in the same deposits as those yielding the remains of modern 

 swans; while an extinct species (C. oeningensis), of the size of the bean goose, 

 occurs in the Miocene rocks of Baden. 



Comb Duck and Before coming to the more typical ducks, there are three genera 



Cotton Teal, demanding a brief notice which, to a certain extent, connect the ducks 

 with the geese, and thus render the classification of the family so difficult. The 

 comb ducks, of which there is an Indian {Sarcidiornis melanonotus), an Africap 

 {S. africanus), and a tropical American species (S. carunculatus), are large and 

 somewhat goose-like birds with short and high beaks, and characterised by the 

 presence of a blunt spur on the wing, a fleshy protuberance at the base of the 

 beak of the male, and the glossy blackish plumage of the beak, the wings being 

 brightly marked like those of ducks. Although the two sexes are very similar, the 

 males are much larger than the females. The Indian species measures from 30 to 

 34 inches in length. In habits it approaches the tree-ducks, frequently perching 

 on trees, and generally nesting in holes in their trunks. 



The Indian cotton-teal {Nettapus coromandelianus) is a member of genus also 

 having one African and two Australian representatives ; and somewhat resembles 

 a miniature of the comb duck, although lacking the comb and spur, and also 

 ■differing by the more sombre coloration of the female. The beak, moreover, is 

 still shorter and higher at the base; and the tail differs from that of all the 

 true ducks in having but twelve feathers. The Indian species, which associates 

 in large flocks, measures 13 or 14 inches in length. 

 Tree-Ducks or There being no representatives of the group in Britain, the idea 



Whistling Teal, of ducks habitually perching in trees may seem to many persons 

 somewhat unnatural, yet this is the normal habit of the tree-ducks, or, as they are 

 generally called in India, whistling teal. Although approaching the more typical 

 ducks in the form of the beak, which is somewhat depressed at the end, this genus 

 {Dendrocygna) may be distinguished from them by the front of the metatarsus 



