224 duck. 



numbers of the skins are often sent into Spain. The bill is blood 

 red halfway from the base, the rest dusky black; nostrils oval, and 

 not covered with a membrane; eyelids white, reaching in a narrow 

 band to the hindhead; rest of the head and half the neck black, &c. 

 A bird is mentioned in Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages, 

 said to be black and white, much larger than a Pelican, and resem- 

 bling that bird : probably it may be the one here described. 



5 —BLACK SWAN. 



Anas atrata, Ind. Orn. ii. 834. 



plutonia, Nat. Mis. pi. 108. 



Black Swan of Van Diemen, D' Entrecast. Voy. 8vo. i. 140. pi. ix. 



Shawian, or Black Swan, Penn. Outlin. iv. 130. 



Black Swan, Gen. Syn. Sup. 343. Phil. Voy. p. 96. White's Journ. 137. 



THIS is somewhat less than the European Species, but with the 

 same elegant shape; extent of wing four feet eight inches. The bill 

 is large and red, growing paler towards the end ; on the base of the 

 upper mandible a bifid protuberance; the under red on the sides, and 

 whitish beneath ; irides red; general colour of the plumage a tine 

 shining black, as remarkable, as the pure white colour of our Swan ; 

 but the greater part of the second quills, and all the prime ones are 

 white, also two or more white feathers on the coverts; belly and 

 thighs ash-colour; legs flesh-coloured brown. 



The female differs no otherwise, than in having only the rudiment 

 of the protuberance at the base of the bill : both sexes have a very 

 fine down under the feathers of a grey colour, and very thick. 



Inhabits various parts of New-Holland, where it has been long 

 noticed. I find it first mentioned in a letter from Mr. Witsen to 

 Dr. M. Lister, about the year 1698, which says, here is returned a 

 ship which by our East India Company was sent to the South Land 

 called Hollandia Nova ; and adds, that Black Swans, Parrots, and 

 many Sea-Cows, were found there.* In 1726 two of them were 



* Phil. Trans. V. xx. p. 36. 



