590 PROF. GIGLIOLI AND COUNT T. SALVADORI ON [DeC. 6, 



Coscoroba davidi, Stejn. Pr. U. S. National Mus. v. p. 180, note 

 (1882). 



Two specimens from Possiette Bay, shot between the 12th and 

 25th of October, 1879. 



a. c? ? Immature specimen of a greyish-white colour ; it has the 

 following dimensions : — Wing 0-520 m. ; tail 0-160 m. ; bill (culmen) 

 0-070 m. ; bill (from gape) 0080 m. ; tarsus 0-100 m. 



6. $ ? Whiter than the male, and therefore older, but shows also 

 the greyish tinge of youth. Dimensions : — Wing 0-500 m. ; tail 

 0-155 m.; bill (culmen) 0068 m. ; bill (from gape) 0*077 ra.;. 

 tarsus 0-090 m. 



These specimens are evidently young birds, as is shown by the 

 greyish tinge in both ; in each of them the lores are covered with very 

 smcdl feathers, those of the forehead descend on the culmen of the bill 

 down to the two curved angles which run along the sides of the 

 culmen ; again, in both the bill is mostly of a yellowish colour, aud 

 only the tip for less than one third of the total length is black ; also 

 the nares appear to open in a small black area. 



On co:i!paring our two specimens with an adult example of C. 

 bewicl'i, one of us noted a very great similarity. The size and dimen- 

 sions of the wing and feet are nearly the same ; the greatest difference 

 appears in the bill, which is smaller (narrower and shorter), but thi 

 difference looks greater than it really is on account of the feathers which 

 cover the lores aud the base of the bill : should these feathers eventually 

 disappear, supposing (as one of us does) that they may be a juvenile 

 character, then the difference in the size of the bill between our two 

 Corean specimens and the adult C. bewicM with which they have 

 been compared might be accounted for by age. The difference in 

 the distance between the tip of the bill and the external corner of the 

 eye is hardly half a centimetre, being 0-112 m. in the adult C. bewicki, 

 and 0-107 m. in the female from Possiette Bay. 



The dried feet in both our specimens seem to have a greenish 

 colour with some traces of reddish brown. 



It appears no easy matter to recognize in the two birds before us 

 specimens of David's Swan, a species as yet so very incompletely 

 described, from the unique specimen, a mutilated one, said to be 

 still in the Museum formed years ago in the Lazzarist Mission- 

 House at Peking by the worthy Pere David, unless moths and dust 

 have destroyed it. It is strange how deficient both the descriptions 

 of Swinhoe and David of that type sfiecimen are ! It is said to be 

 smaller than C. bewicki, with the neck a third shorter, bill vermilion 

 red with the dertrum (alone ?) black, and feet orange-yellow. Now 

 no clear traces of any such characters can be seen on our two 

 t^pecimens from Possiette Bay. Swinhoe added that C. davidi was 

 akin to C. coscoroba from South America, with which our two Swans 

 have no likeness at all, being much more like C. bewicki (even adult), 

 from which species they mainly differ in having the lores covered 

 with small feathers and the bill much less black. However, as Pere 

 David, who saw our two specimens shortly after their arrival in 

 Florence (April 1880), recognized them at once as belonging to C. 



