Zoo Notes 
in fine. In 
winter the old 
male bird has 
all the upper 
part of his 
plumage 
sooty black, 
with large 
golden _yel- 
low spots on 
the margin of 
the backs of 
the feathers. 
This is partly 
due to new growths and also to some of the 
old feathers actually changing their colour, 
but how this change is brought about still 
remains a mystery. The species are plentiful 
and very widely diffused. They frequent sea 
shores and the mouths of rivers, congregating 
in such numbers as soon to exhaust the food 
to be found in any one place. ‘They are 
therefore compelled to shift their quarters 
very often. Their food consists of insects 
and worms. The latter, it is said, they will 
cause to come above ground: by striking with 
their feet. The worms are supposed to 
mistake the noise thus produced for the 
approach of their dreaded enemy the mole. 
The second bird is the remarkable Black 
Swan (Cygnus atratus), of which a male and 
female are illustrated. The complete absence 
of the ordinary white colour of these birds 
is very curious. - Some white feathers may 
be seen under the wings when open, as 
in the illustration of the female. They 
are inhabitants of various parts of New 
Holland, and 
have even 
given the 
name to the 
Swan River 
in Western 
Australia. 
The bill is 
orange-red 
and the feet 
brown, and 
although this 
species is as 
large as the 
CRA? 
GOLDEN PLOVER. 
BLACK SWAN. 
367 
common white, it appears to be rather 
inferior to it im strength. 
The last bird is not a frequent guest 
at the Gardens, though, as everyone knows, 
Gannets are very numerous on the Bass 
Rock and certain other islands off the coast of 
Britain. It also appears to have two Irish 
stations, but its only Hnelish breeding-place 
is on Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel. 
In old times the birds existed in considerable 
numbers, and even in 1860 the late Dr. Bryant 
reckoned the population of gannets on the 
Great Bird Rock to amount to the extra- 
ordinary 
number of 
50,000 
pais. In 
1887 not 
more than 
10,000 
birds were 
said to be 
there, and 
the num- 
bers, as 
given by 
Mr. Lucus 
in the 
ce Neil eee 
1888, pp. 
129-135, 
are yearly 
decreasing, 
on account 
of the bru- 
tality of 
the fisher- 
men. On 
all these places the birds arrive about the 
end of March, and depart in the autumn 
when the young are ready to fly. In 
appearance the gannet is as bulky as a 
goose, and with longer wings and tail, but 
he weighs considerably less. The nest of the 
gannet consists of a shallow depression made 
in weeds or grass placed upon the ledge of 
a rock. In this the female lays a single 
white egg. A method sometimes adopted for 
securing these birds consists in fixing a 
herring on a board and towing it along the 
surface of the sea; the gannets, seeing it, 
COMMON GANNET. 
BLACK SWAN. 
