owe BIRDS, 
near its bifurcation into capsules of various forms. The gizzard is large, 
and very muscular, the ceca long. The great genus, 
Anas, Lin. 
Comprises those Palmipedes, the edges of whose large and broad bill are 
furnished with a range of thin salient laminz, placed transversely, which 
appear destined to allow the water to pass off when the bird has seized its 
prey. ‘They are divided into three subgenera, whose limits, however, are 
not very precise. 
Cyenus, Meyer. 
The Swans have the bill of an equal breadth throughout, higher at its 
base than it is wide; the nostrils about the middle of its length; the neck 
is very long. They are the largest birds of the genus, and feed chiefly 
on the seeds and roots of aquatic plants. Their intestines and ceca in 
particular are consequently very long. There is no inflation of the trachea. 
‘Lwo species are found in Europe. 
Anas olor, Gm.; Cigne a bee rouge, Enl. 918. (The Red-billed 
or Domestic Swan). Bill red, edged with black, surmounted at the 
base by a rounded protuberance; the plumage snow-white. When 
young the bill is lead-coloured and the plumage grey. This is the 
species, when domesticated, that forms the ornament of our ponds 
and grounds. The gentleness of its motions, the elegance of its 
form, the brilliant whiteness of its plumage, contribute to make it 
the emblem of beauty and innocence. It lives indifferently on fish 
and vegetables, flies at a great elevation, and with considerable ra- 
pidity, and swims swiftly, availing itself of the wind by means of its 
wings, which further serve it as a powerful weapon to strike the enemy 
by whom it is attacked. 
An. cygnus, Gm.; Edw..150; Brit. Zool. pl. 1; Naum., Ed. I, 
t. 13, £27. Cigne a bec noir, (The Black-billed Swan). Bill 
black, with a yellow base; the body white tinged with a yellowish- 
grey—when young, all grey. This species, which is very similar 
externally to the preceding one, differs essentially from it internally, 
in the trachea, which is bent over and penetrates to a considerable 
extent in a cavity of the keel of the sternum, a peculiarity common to 
both sexes, which does not exist in the domestic Swan. The latter 
is also erroneously called the Wild Swan, and the Singing Swan. 
The story of its singing on the approach of death is a fable. 
An, plutonia, Sh.; A. atrata, Lath.; Cigne noir; Nat. Misc. pl. 
108; Vieill. Gal. 286 (The Black Swan), has been lately discovered 
in New Holland; it is the size of the common species, but its car- 
riage is less graceful and elegant; it is all black, the primary quills 
excepted, which are white, and the bill with the naked skin on its 
base, which is red*. 
It is impossible to separate from the swans, certain species, much less 
* The Oie @ cravatie (dn. canadensis, L.), Enl. 346, Wils. LX VII, 4, appears to me 
to be a true swan. 
