VOYAGE TO NEW SOUTH WALES. 
At the end of this we fell in with a fmall falt-water lagoon, 
on which we found nine birds, that, whilfh fwimming, moft 
perfectly refembled the rara avis of the ancients — a black 
fwan. We difcharged feveral fhot at them, but the diftance 
was too great for execution. Our frequent firing, however, 
caufed them to take wing, and they flew towards the fea, 
which was very near, in the order that wild geefe generally 
preferve ; the one before the other. Had we not raifed 
them, we fliould certainly have concluded that they were 
black fwans ; but their flight gave us an opportunity of 
feeing fome white feathers, which terminated the tip of each 
wing ; in every other part they were perfedlly black. Their 
fize appeared not equal to that of an European fwan, but 
the fhape exadly correfponded, except about the wings, 
which feemed rather fmall for the body. We not long after 
difcovered the great brown King's Fiflier, of which a plate 
is annexed. This bird has been defcribed by Mr. Latham 
in his General Synopjts of Birds, vol. ii. p. 603, nearly to 
the following purport : — The length eighteen inches ; the 
bill black above, and white beneath ; the feathers of the 
head narrow, and pretty long, fo as to form a kind of creft. 
They are of a brown colour, ftreaked with paler brown ; the 
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