1920.] Cape San Antonio, Buenos Ayres. 9 



339. Coscorol)a Candida Vieill. Coscoroba Swan. 



(As will be seen further on, I am led to modify and 

 amplify my former notes on the nesting-habits of this 

 species, vide 'The Ibis/ 1880, p. 36.) 



Mr. Hudson, in dealing with the beauty and other charac- 

 teristics of the Coscoroba Swan^ places it second to its 

 Black-necked congener, Cygnus nigricoUis; whilst 1 still 

 adhere to my expressed opinion that Coscoroba Candida is 

 the handsomer, and in many respects more interesting, bird. 

 The superior size and greater numerical predominance of 

 the one necessarily establish a certain priority ; on the other 

 hand, the latter is the more graceful (in spite of a shorter 

 neck) and shows a certain bold defiance as it swims back- 

 wards and forwards, challenging the intruder and answering 

 its mate, before taking to flight, whilst ('. nigricoUis flaps 

 heavily away over the water or remains timidly and in silence 

 in the offing. As Hudson admits, the flight is also freer, 

 and I have often noticed that it detects the hidden gunner 

 and deflects its course in accordance much more readily than 

 the heavier black-necked species. I would note that in 

 ' Argentine Ornithology ' the beautiful illustration per- 

 taining to C. nigricoUis errs in depicting the individual (on 

 the water) with a curved neck and raised back and wings. 

 The correct portraiture of a stifl" neck and straight back 

 would obviously deprive it of these fictitious advantages ; 

 and it is C. Candida which actually possesses and displays 

 these attributes, accentuating them by a further graceful 

 movement of the neck as the warning trumpet-call is 

 uttered. 



I would hesitate to say that it occasionally feeds away from 

 the water, i. e., on the grass-land. Though it may frequently 

 be found ou veiy shallow open marshes, its congener, 

 C. nigricoUis, almost entirely aflects the lagunas or such 

 deeper portions of the swamps where the use of its natatorv 

 powers is incumbent. 



Only twice have I seen flocks which reached the number 

 of fifty or sixty. But at all periods of the year pairs may 



