On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 02:07:58PM +1000, Chris Gregory wrote: > Willem de Vlamingh’s exploratory expedition for the Dutch East Company > sailed up the Swan river on January 10th 1697. Black swans were taken back > to Europe. All died on the voyage but the specimens were preserved and this > was the first time Europeans had seen entirely black swans. The South > American Black-necked swan, *Cygnus melancoryphus*, is obviously not > entirely black.
Cygnus atratus isn’t entirely black and to be even more pedantic we don’t know that no Europeans had seen C. atratus before 1697. A number of European ships reached our coastline in the preceding century.
Andrew ===============================
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