BLACK SWAN. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has sent me the following account : “I have seen this 
bird throughout Australia. On the Coorong, in South Australia, I have 
seen them in thousands until the water was perfectly black, and their 
long necks presented a peculiar effect as they stood up above the water, 
like so many black sticks or stalks of water-plants, with a red flower 
on top, represented by the bill. This was in 1872, but since then the 
Black Swan has been sadly molested by the advance of civilization, both 
young and old birds being ruthlessly shot by so-called sportsmen, whom 
I have heard boast that they ‘ potted ’ twenty and thirty Black Swan 
in an evening as they came along the water to feed. The half-caste 
natives (nearly white) have been great enemies in these districts, including 
lakes Alexandrina and Albert, as they rob the nests shamefully under 
cover of the clause in the Bird Protection Act, which gives the aboriginal 
a ‘ free hand ’ to take for his personal consumption. I have heard 
these so-called blacks boast of having taken 200, 400, 600, and 800 eggs 
each during a single raid in the swamps during the nesting time. The 
modus o'perandi resorted to by the blacks to secure the old birds is to 
conceal themselves just before dusk where a neck of land juts out and 
forms a low bank in the water : the unwary swans will fly low over 
the water until they reach the jutting land, then swoop up over it, and 
as they do so the black in ambush fires his gun right into the bird’s 
breast, and down one or two come, according to the number of barrels 
to the gun, for the range is too close to miss the bird, and the blacks, 
though armed with old guns, are the best of shots, and can stalk their 
game better than white men and have great patience in doing so. These 
practices ran the supplies very low, and a year or two ago the swan 
was totally protected in South Australia, and they are now increasing 
steadily. The clutch of eggs being 6 to 8, the increase is considerable, 
providing they have half a chance from molestation. The nest is placed 
on the flags and reeds and composed of pieces of these, or ai^iything 
movable within the reach of the swan’s long neck, as the birds will sit on 
the structure and stretch out and gather in the material very fast, until 
quite a bulky pile is made, measuring 4 or 5 feet across, and several 
feet high ; the nest is buoyant with the air-cells of the flags and reeds, 
and as the water rises, should it reach the pile, it wfll rise on the surface 
of the water and sometimes break away from its moorings and float 
some distance in the swamp weed and plants, the parent bird keeping 
to her duties quite unconcerned. The birds are very savage in their 
endeavours to protect their young in captivity or semi-captivity, but in 
their wild state they leave the nest quietly at the approach of danger. 
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