RINGED BLACK SWANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 13, 15 July 1937, Page 5

RINGED BLACK SWANS

PROBABLY FROM SOUTH

AUSTRALIAN INTRODUCTION

Two rings found on the legs of black swans shot on Lake Wairarapa recently were passed round the members of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society at its meeting last night. The rings were large-sized and of a light green colour, but their source could be identified by none of those present.

The ringing of birds for the purpose of ascertaining the extent of their migrations is an increasing practice amongst naturalists and those interested in wildfowl. Wild swans migrate wherever they arc- lound in all parts of the world, nut there appears to be no proof of trans-Tasman migrations by the black swans, which are Australian, and not New Zealand natives.

A species of swan considerably larger than the Australian black swan formerly existed in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, but though at one time very numerous, especially in the Chathams, according to some authorities, it has now disappeared. The first importation of black swan into New Zealand from Australia consisted of seven birds landed in Nelson in 1864. The bird is now general in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and in the Chatham Islands. It is not considered probable that it makes trans-Tasman migrations. The distance covered in such a migration would not be greater than that covered by the black-necked swans of Patagonia, which are found as far north as Southern Brazil and Chile. In that case, and with European and North American swans, the migration can be made entirely above land, or with only short flights above the sea.

Unless the ringed birds shot on Lake Wairarapa have come- from the Chathams, it is probable that they are from Canterbury, where ringing has been introduced. They may, on 'the other hand, have proved that black swans cross the Tasman.