Brewer's: Rara A'vis

(Latin, a rare bird). A phenomenon; a prodigy; a something quite out of the common course. Black swans are now familiar to us; they are natives of Australia, and have given its name to the “Swan river.” At one time a black swan was emphatically a rara avis.

“Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygne.”

Juvenal.

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