A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.
- George Montagu
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![middle toe to the end of the claw three- fourths of an inch. The toes placed three before and one behind, the latter being however situated not in the mid- dle, but on the inner side of the shank. The beak short, very broad at the base, and black. Front and upper part of the eye bordered by a line of stiff, black, bristly feathers. Forehead grayish white; crown of the head, back of the neck, upper tail-coverts, and ui^per side of the tail-fea- thers shining brown, beautifully varied with purple and green reflections; back grayish brown, lightest in the centre; pri- mary and secondary wing-feathers dull brown, lightest on the inner web; wing- coverts darker; the innermost feathers of the gi-eater wing-coverts being more or less white on the inner web, and the whole ning being varied with reflections of pur- ple and green. The tail in fonn almost square; the feathers ten in number, the shaft of each being carried beyond the web, and forming a short, sharp spine, which, in the central feathers, rather ex- ceeds one-eighth of an inch in length, and gradually diminishes towards the outside. The chin, throat, and under toil-coverts white ; breast, belly, and under surface of tJie tail-feathers clove-brown ; flanks dark brown, spotted with white; legs, toes, and claws dark brown.” — Fisher, Zool. 14.02. This bird is a native of Australia, the south-east portion of the Himalayas, Nepal, Sikim and Bootan, occasionally wandering into Persia, Arabia, and once into Eng- land, as recorded by Mr. Catchpool in the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1840, p. 1402. Mr. Catch- pool says :—“ It was shot about 0 p.m. on the 8th of this month (July), by a farmer’s son, named Peter Covency, in the parish of Great Horkesley, about four miles from Colchester; he saw it first on the evening of the 0th : he tells me it occasionally flew to a great height, was principally engaged in hawking for flies over a small wood and neighbouring trees ; being only wounded, it cried very much as it fell, and, when he took it up, clung so tightly to some clover (it was in a clover-lay) as to draw some stalks from the ground : it is evidently nearly allied to the Swallow, and its late feeding would perhaps show some aflinity to the Goatsucker: the protrading shafts of the tail-feathers are singular.” The singular hj'pothesis has been stalled that this bird was sent over in the flesh from Australia, in order to deceive Mr. Catchpool : the bird was carefully ex- amined by the late Mr. Yarrell, Mr. W. B. Fisher, Mr. Hall, Mr. Doubleday, and my- self, without detecting any trace of de- ception : the ingenious hypothesis of its importation in the flesh must therefore be dismissed.] [Swallowtailed Kite.— See Kite, Swallow- tailed.] •[Swan, Bewick’s.— Yarrell, iii. 198 (head only); Hewitson, cxi. 390. “ Cygnus islan- dicus, Brehm, Vog. Bents, p. 832, t. 41, f. 1. Cygnus minor. Keys d; Bl. WirbeUh. Eur. p. 82; G. R. Gray, Gen. of B. iii. p. 010. Cygnus musicus minor, Schleg. Rev. Grit, des Ois. d’Eur. p. 112. Cygnus mela- norhinus, Naum. Vog. Beuts. xi. p. 497, t. 297. Cygnus Bewicku, Yam-ell, Lin. Trans. 1830, j). 445.” Synonymes cited from G. E. Gray’s Museum ‘ Catalogue of British Animals,’ Part* iii. p. 210. — “ The adult bird is of a pime unsullied white; the base of the beak orange-yellow ; the irides dark; the legs, toes, and membranes black. The whole length is from three feet ten inches to four feet two inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest pri- mary twenty-one inches; the second and third quill-feathers longer than the first and fourth ; tail-feathers twenty; in young birds I have found but eighteen, and in one instance nineteen.”— Yarrell, iii. 204. This is undoirbtedly distinct from the Hooper as a species, than which it is about one-third less: it appears to be equaUy common with the Hooper, although not so frequently observed. Mr. Blackwall, in his ‘ Eeseorches in Zoology,’ mentions the occuiTence of several flocks, in one of w'hich were no less than seventy-three in- dividuals.] [Swan, Black.—Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vii. PI. 6. C3^gnus atratus, Stephens, Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xii. 18. Che- nopis atrata, Wagler, in Oken’s Isis, 1832, p. 1234; Gould, Handbook of the Birds of Australia, ii. 340. — “ The whole of the plumage brownish black, the under sur- face paler than the upper; the feathers of the back tipped with greyish hiwyn; pri- maries and secondaries pure w'hite; bill beauliful pinky scarlet, crossed near the tip with a broad band of white; the ex- tremities of hotli mandibles ore also white; irides scarlet; eyelash and lores pinky scarlet; feet black.”— Gould, Hand- book of Birds of Australia, ii. 349. This Australian Swan has been imported in such abundance, breeds so freely, and so frequently makes its escape, that it will doubtless become a denizen in Europe: it is already very frequently seen on the Danube, and some half-dozen specimens are rejiorted to have been kiEed in the British Isles.] [Swan, Changeless. — Yarrell, ui. 230 (head only). Cygnus immutabflis, Yarrell, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1838, p. 19.— “ In the adult bird the beak is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28089935_0360.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
