46 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 
BLACK SWAN. 
(Cygnus atratus). 
This bird is not quite so large as the Mute Swan, and is 
more slender in build. It is found in large flocks in the South 
and West of Australia, breeding from the end of September till 
the middle of January. Dr. Bennett mentions in his “ Gather- 
ings of a Naturalist in Australasia” that the Black Swan was 
some time since so abundant in the southern districts of 
Australia and Tasmania, that he had seen a drove of them 
being driven like a flock of geese up one of the principal streets 
of Sydney. He states that the breeding season commences in 
October and continues until the middle of January, and that 
these Swans, like many other Australian birds, are very prolific. 
producing two or three broods in twelve months. The nest, 
which is of large size, and formed of dry reeds, usually contains 
five to eight eggs of a pale green or blue colour, stained with 
brown, an nearly five inches long. In this country Cygnus 
atratus has been successfully bred in Surrey by Mr. Samuel 
Gurney, of Carshalton, who gave the following interesting account 
to Mr. Gould :— 
‘© They were purchased in 1851, and laid their first egg January Ist, 
1854 ; it was a most severe winter, snow on the ground, and intense frost 
nearly the whole time they were sitting ; it was observed thac both sexes 
assist in the duties of iucubation, the female usually remaining on the 
nest during the night ; they hatched their young during the greatest cold of 
that winter, from which they did not suffer, though they had no shelter of 
any kind, and their nest was fully exposed to the east wind. Out of the 
ninety-three young ones hatched by them up to the present year 1862 
(inclusive), about half that number have been reared. Some of them have 
died from disease, but most of them have been killed by the old ones 
dragging them about in the fields, when they have fallen into small holes 
on their backs, and have not been able to recover themselves, They have 
bred sixteen times in seven years, having laid 111 eggs.” 
It is needful to recollect that owing to the inversion of the 
seasons, the breeding time of imported Australian birds undergo 
