I20 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
he had known the Lake as man and boy for thirty 
years, and only three nests had he seen, all old ones. 
I conclude that the Lakes are nowadays not sequestered 
enough, there being also too much disturbance from 
shooting, for the Swan to build in their vicinity ; 
most of the birds we see there would be consequently 
but birds of passage, breeding, it may be, in Murray 
swamps, and perhaps in protected Western District 
waters. The average weight of a Black Swan is 
lo lb., but they have been known to go up to i6 lb. 
The moult is about midsummer, and then it is easy 
to run them down in a boat. Indeed I have more 
than once caught a moulting Swan hiding among 
the sedge a couple of hundred yards from the water, 
quite incapable of flight. 
There is much movement of Swan, by night and 
day, over Geelong, to and from Connewarre on the 
one side and, as I imagine, Corangamite on the other. 
They fly in an imperfect V-formation — say a dozen 
on one arm of it and only two or three on the other. 
Usually they are two or three hundred feet up, but 
one hears the heavy beat of their wings and an 
occasional wild note. 
MAGPIE GOOSE 
Anseranas semipalmata 
I AM told, by men who know the Lake well, that the 
Magpie Geese are occasionally, but very rarely, seen 
there in these days ; their black heads, necks, and 
