Cape San Antonio, Buenos Ayres. 37 
it, swimming about uneasily the while. Of the two species, 
C. nigricollis and C. coscoroba, the one under note is much 
the handsomer. It bears itself more gracefully when swim- 
ming, the neck curved and the wings raised, after the true 
Swan model, while the brilliant carmine beak and caruncles 
contrast admirably with the plumage (entirely white except 
the black-tipped wings). Iris mottled blood-colour, pupil black. 
Breeding-Notes.—My information on the subject is not so 
full as might be desired, from always having postponed beat- 
ing up the favourite nesting-locality of C. coscoroba, where 
the larger swamps merge into the brackish lagoons and tidal 
creeks of the rincones. It also breeds further inland, in 
similar localities to those of C. nigricollis ; and I have seen or 
been told of nests in such large fens as those of the Cisneros, 
the Mangrulla, and the Arroyo Grande, all in the neighbour- 
hood ; but these are the exceptional cases, I believe. In these 
latter the situation, materials, &c. of the nest are identical 
with those of C. nigricollis. The neighbourhood of the La- 
guna de Milan is our great locality, however; and I have 
known one of our shepherds there gather as many as thirty 
or forty fresh eggs in a day, paddling about the isolated and 
otherwise inaccessible islands and low grounds in an old 
sheep-trough. The description and situation of a nest I took 
on the marshy shore of the lagoon, as I passed in a boat one 
day, applies, this man tells me, to nearly all. It was placed 
about a hundred yards from the water, on marshy ground, 
separated from the mainland, however, by a creek not to be 
passed on horseback. There was no vegetation to conceal it, 
the birds evidently relying upon the difficulty of access for 
security. Built of mud and rushes, about a foot and a half 
high, with a considerable depression for the eggs, the latter 
lined with dry grass and rushes. Both birds remained close 
to the nest till I had landed and approached within a few 
yards. My informant also stated that as many as eight or 
nine eggs are laid, which, however, I consider doubtful. I 
once saw a nest with five—a clutch the remembrance of which 
still haunts my memory; for [ was in too great a hurry to 
stop and lift it at the time. i 
