LAE BEACK SWAN 
Curious though it may appear, when mere outward 
look is considered, the gulls come nearest to the Limi- 
cole than to all other existing groups of birds. The 
Limicole is that extensive assemblage of birds which 
includes the snipes, plovers, and their manifold kindred. 
One rather singular type of Limicoline (not infrequently 
to be seen at the Zoo) is an antarctic bird of white 
plumage, known as Chionis, or in English as sheath-bill. 
It is an almost ideally intermediate form. It has the 
aspect and marine habits of a gull ; but in some other par- 
_ticulars agrees more closely with the land representa- 
tives of this group Limicole. Another bird, British 
this time, offers a second bridge to connect the gulls 
with the plovers and the rest. The phalaropes are apt 
to be quite gull-coloured in their winter plumage ; a 
- delicate grey upon the back being contrasted with a 
white under-surface. But the phalaropes have not 
properly webbed feet like the gulls. The feet are in fact 
lobate, with expansions of skin at intervals as in the 
coot. The noises of gulls are varied and cheerful. The 
“countless laughter of the sea’’ is due to the hilarious 
jocularity of many gulls; one species has been named 
Larus cachinnaus, the laughing gull. 
THE BLack SWAN 
It seems to be almost impossible to mention the black 
swan without quoting Virgil’s “ rara avis in terris,”’ etc. 
At any rate, no writer of natural histories has ever avoided 
this obvious opportunity. There is, however, a kind of 
appropriateness in finding in Australia a negation of this 
kind, a sort of topsy-turvydom in colour which hangs 
together with mammals that lay eggs, with kingfishers 
that do not fish in streams but upon the dry land, and 
for reptiles, with weird-looking creatures that are appar- 
ently rabbits and wolves, but are really neither. The 
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