200 animals in menageries. 



The Black Swan. 



Cygnus atratus, Meyer. 



Entirely black, with the hill red, and the legs flesh- 

 coloured. 



Anas plutonia, Shaw, Nat. Mis. pi. 103. Anas atrata, the 

 Black Swan, Lath. Si/nnp of Birds, Supp. 343. Gen. Hist. x. 

 234. Phillips, Voy. p. 9G. White's Voy. p. 137. 



The black swan is as characteristic of the Austra- 

 lian continent, as the white ones are of the northern 

 hemisphere ; and yet, in every thing but colour, the two 

 species have a very close resemblance. The discovery 

 of the black swan must have been almost as early as 

 the discovery of the great south land which it inhabits ; 

 for it seems to be abundantly dispersed over all the rivers 

 of AustraHa, so that our early navigators could not 

 have failed to see it. Accordingly, we find that, about 

 the year I698, Dr. Lister, the most celebrated na- 

 turalist of that day, reports to the Royal Society, that 

 " here is returned a ship, which by our East India 

 company was sent to the south land, called HoUandia 

 Nova, bringing the news that black swans, parrots, and 

 many sea-cows were found there." And long before 

 our circumnavigators had actually brought the spoils of 

 these strange coloured birds to Europe, two of them 

 had been imported alive to Batavia, by some of the 

 Dutch vessels, where they were seen by the naturalist 

 Valentyn ; in whose curious book they are represented 

 as swimming upon a lake, and one being caught by a 

 sailor. 



This species generally associates in small flocks of 

 eight or twelve, on the sides and mouths of rivers, or 

 in salt-water lagoons. Dr. White, who accompanied 

 the first fleet of convicts to New South Wales, saw 

 nine of them swimming together : but although the 

 party fired upon them, all the birds flew towards the 

 sea, which was very near, in the same order as wild 



