420 
It 
less 
AVES. 
tables, flies extremely high and with great swiftness, using its 
wings, which are a powerful weapon, in striking its enemies 
when attacked. It breeds among the reeds in ponds, and lays 
six or eight eggs of a®greenish-grey. 
An. cygnus, Gm.; Edw. 150; Brit. Zool. pl. 2; Naum., Ed. 
I, t. 13, f. 27. (The Black-billed Swan.) Bill black with a yel- 
low 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 com- 
mon 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 tale of its singing on the approach of death 
is a fable. a 
An. plutonia, Sh.; A. atrata, Lath.; Cigne noir; Nat. Misc. pl. 
108; Vieill. Gal. 286 (The Black Swan), has been lately dis- 
covered in New Holland; it is the size of the common species, 
but its cafriage 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.(1) 
is impossible to separate from the Swans, certain species, much 
elegant it is true, but which have the same kind of bill. Se- 
veral have a tubercle at.its base. The most common, 
An. cygnoides, L..; Oie de Guinée, Enl. 347, is bred in poultry 
yards, where it mixes with the Geese. It is a whitish grey with 
a brown grey mantle; the male is recognised by a feathered ap- 
pendage which hangs under his bill, and by a large tubercle 
which surmounts its base. Another species, much rarer, called 
by its first describers 
An. gambensis, L.; Oiede Gambie; Lath. Syn. III, p. 2, pl. 102, 
is remarkable for its size, long legs, tubercle on the forehead, 
and for two large spurs with which its wing is armed. Its plu- 
mage is a purple black, the throat, front, and under part of the 
body and wings, white.(2) 
(1) The Ote @ cravatte (An. canadensis, L.) Enl. 346, Wils., LX VII, 4, appears 
to me to be a true Swan. 
(2) Buff. has confounded this Goose with a variety of the Oie d’Egypte, Enl. 
982. 
The figure of Latham is defective, inasmuch as it shows but one spur; the 
helmet also is not salient. 
(An. 
This is also the place for the Oie bronzée 4 créte sur le bec, Fpcaats apoa, of Marcgr. 
melanotos), Enl. 937, Vieill. 285. 
