[Illustration] The black swan is a noisy species, more especially during the pairing-season, when it gives vent to loud trumpetings. When doing so, the neck is stretched out straight along the water, so that the beak lies close to the surface. At this season the males become very pugnacious, and fight much among themselves. It is a beautiful sight to watch a party of these swans swimming on a still lake or river by moonlight in large circles; but this is exceeded when the birds mount into the air and reveal the striking contrast formed by the white of the pinions against the sable of the rest of the plumage. When flying, these swans stretch out their necks to the fullest extent, and accompany the loud and regular beat of their wings with continuous and resounding trumpetings. The black swan bears captivity well, alike in its own country and in Europe, being content with small rations and breeding regularly every season. The Australian black swan is by no means the only abnormally coloured member of its tribe inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere, its place in South America being taken by the black-necked swan (_C. nigricollis_), which is a native of Chile, Argentina, and some of the other southern countries. In this handsome species the head and neck are black, and the remainder of the plumage white; the lores, or bare patches in front of the eyes, and the basal portion of the beak being red. In its long and wedge-shaped tail the black-necked swan differs from the black species and resembles the ordinary European mute swan (_C. olor_), from which it is structurally distinguished by the scalloped margins of the webs of the toes. The adults of all swans, except the black and the black-necked species, are wholly white; the smallest kind is the coscoroba swan of South America, which is no larger than a goose, and has been referred to a genus by itself. THE BUSTARD (_Otis tarda_) By the extermination of the bustard, or great bustard, as it is sometimes called in order to distinguish it from its smaller relatives, the British Islands have lost one of the finest members of their bird fauna; and, unfortunately, all attempts to rehabilitate this magnificent species have resulted in failure. It is to be feared, moreover, that any such attempts have but little chance of success in the future, for the bustard is a native of open downs and fallows, where it must live an undisturbed and untrammelled existence, and in England at the present day this is almost an impossibility in country of that description. In this respect the bustard stands at a great disadvantage in comparison with the capercaillie, whose reintroduction into the forests of Scotland was a relatively easy matter.