﻿BLACK SWAN. 



69 



twenty-three inches ; the tarsus four inches ; hind toe and 

 claw one inch ; middle toe five inches and a quarter. The 

 toes are scaled up to the last joint, reticulated beyond ; legs 

 also reticulated. 



The first and fourth quills of the wing, of equal length, 

 the second the longest in the wing. 



The primary quills Avhite, except about an inch of the tips 

 which are black ; spurious wing black ; secondaries white, 

 with two inches of blackish-grey at the tips ; greater coverts 

 white at the base ; rest of the wing sooty black, tipped with 

 sepia. 



The head and neck black, with sepia tips to the feathers. 

 The beak orange ; the tip flesh-colour ; nail whitish horn- 

 colour ; a white band across the beak near the nail. 



The eyes are rufous brown ; the legs dark ash-grey, 

 tinged with olive on the webs. 



On displacing the feathers of this bird in any part, new, 

 small, jet-black feathers, still in the quills, may be found im- 

 bedded in the thick white down. 



In a subsequent number we intend to give a representation 

 of the trachea and breast-bone. 



