BLACK SWAN FAMILY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21938, 23 October 1934, Page 6

BLACK SWAN FAMILY

A POPULAR ATTRACTION FIVE CYGNETS IN DOMAIN Most of the hundreds of people who visited the Auckland Domain yesterday made a special call on the recent additions to the black swan family. For some weeks the parent birds have been diligently performing the duties connected with such occasions, the female sitting on the eggs and her mate collecting more material for the nest and keeping a watchful eye on possible invaders of their sanctuary. Warned by two mishaps last season the birds had made a more secure home on the small island at the tennis court end of the pond, and here, about last Thursday, fiv>3 healthy cygnets were hatched. Yesterday the parents had their family out on show. Much of the time was "spent in swimming slowly about the pond collecting the liberal supplies of food thrown to them. The live cygnets, like balls .of light grey down, paddled in a little group always close to their mother, while the male bird, with wings half erect, kept a- few feet away and occasionally uttered a warning to children approaching too near the edge of the pond. Every now and again the whole family retreated to the shore near their nest and the cygnets were givijn their early lessons in feeding below the water, finding some difficulty in keeping their heads below. Meanwhile, the male- bird kept his distance, always on guard, while the female collected twigs from the bottom apparently not having lost the nest-building instinct. What puzzled most of the younger spectators was the great difference between the parents and the cygnets, and many of them refused to believe that the swans had not adopted a family of ducklings.