. . August, when he throws off his fine crest, his wing-fans,and all his brilliant colors, assuming the sober-tinted dressof his mate. The summer duck of America bears a closeresemblance to the mandarin duck, both in plumage andmanners, and at certain times of the year is hardly to bedistinguished from that bird. The Chinese, says Dr. Bennett, highly esteem themandarin duck, which exhibits, as they think, a most strik-ing example of conjugal attachment and fidelity. A pairof them are frequently placed in a gaily decorated cage andcar
. . August, when he throws off his fine crest, his wing-fans,and all his brilliant colors, assuming the sober-tinted dressof his mate. The summer duck of America bears a closeresemblance to the mandarin duck, both in plumage andmanners, and at certain times of the year is hardly to bedistinguished from that bird. The Chinese, says Dr. Bennett, highly esteem themandarin duck, which exhibits, as they think, a most strik-ing example of conjugal attachment and fidelity. A pairof them are frequently placed in a gaily decorated cage andcarried in their marriage processions, to be presented to thebride and groom as worthy objects of emulation. I could more easily, wrote a friend of Dr. Bemiettsin China, to whom he had expressed his desire for a pair ofthese birds, send you two live mandarins than a pair ofmandarin ducks. This foreign duck has been success-fully reared in zoological gardens, some being hatchedunder the parent bird and others being quite successfullyhatched under the domestic BLACK SWAN. (Cyginis Rtratus).M Life-size. MFORD. CHICAGO FAMOUS FOREIGN BIRDS 469 THE BLACK SWAN* Australia is the home of the Black Swan, and it isinvested by an even greater interest than attaches to theSouth American bird, which is white. The Dutch navi-gator William de Vlaming, visiting the west coast of South-land, sent two of his boats on the 6th of January, 1697, toexplore an estuary he had found. There their crews sawat first two and then more black swans, of which they caughtfour, taking two of them alive to Batavia; and Valentyn,who several years later recounted this voyage, gives in hiswork a plate representing the ship, boats, and birds, at themouth of what is known from this circumstance as theSwan River, the most important stream of the thrivingcolony of West Australia, which has adopted this swanas its armorial symbol. Subsequent voyagers. Cook andothers, found that the range of the species extended overt
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
