SIVA A' 929 



p. 273) ; but the assertion is very questionable, and the supposition 

 that they are allied to the Ampelidx (Waxwing), though possibly 

 better founded, has not as yet been confirmed by any anatomical 

 investigation. An affinity to the Indian and Australian Artamus 

 (the species of which genus are often known as Wood-Swallows, or 

 Swallow- Shrikes) has also been suggested; and it may turn out 

 that this genus, with its neighbours, may be the direct and less 

 modified descendants of a generalized type, whence the Hirundinidx 

 have diverged ; but at present it would seem as if the suggestion 

 originated only in the similarity of certain habits, such as swift 

 flight and the capacity of uninterruptedly taking and swallowing 

 insect-food on the wing. 



Swallows are nearly cosmopolitan birds, inhabiting every consider- 

 able country except New Zealand, wherein only a stray example, 

 presumably from Australia, occasionally occurs. 



SWAN (A.-S. Swan and S'W07i, Icel. Svanr, Dutch Zwaan, Germ. 

 Schwan), a large swimming-bird, well known from being kept in a 

 half-domesticated condition throughout many parts of Europe, 

 whence it has been carried to other countries. In England it was 

 far more abundant formerly than at present, the young, or Cygnets,^ 

 being highly esteemed for the table, and it was under especial 

 enactments for its preservation, and regarded as a " Bird Royal " 

 that no subject could possess without licence from the crown, the 

 granting of which licence was accompanied by the condition that 

 every bird in a " game " (to use the old legal term) of Swans should 

 bear a distinguishing mark of ownership (cygninota) on the bill. 

 Originally this privilege was conferred on the larger freeholders 

 only, but it was gradually extended, so that in the reign of Elizabeth 

 upwards of 900 distinct Swan-marks, being those of private persons 

 or corporations, were recognized by the royal Swanherd, whose 

 jurisdiction extended over the whole kingdom. It is impossible 

 here to enter into further details on this subject, interesting as it is 

 from various points of view.^ It is enough to remark that all the 



^ Here, as in so many other cases {cf. Pigeon, p. 723), we have what may be 

 called the "table-name" of an animal derived from the Norman- French, while 

 that which it bore when alive was of Teutonic origin. I tind Yarrell's assertion, 

 as to the use of Cob and Pen, on which I threw doubt (p. 92), confirmed by 

 citations (iV. Ungl. Did. ii. p. 559). 



^ At the present time the Queen and the Companies of Dyers and Vintners still 

 maintain their Swans on the Thames, and a yearly expedition is made in the month 

 of July or August to take up the young birds — thence called " Swan-upping " 

 and corruptly "Swan-hopping" — and mark them. The largest Swannery in 

 England, indeed the only one worthy of the name, is that belonging to Lord 

 Ilchester, on the water called the Fleet, lying inside the Chesil Bank on the 

 coast of Dorset, where from 700 to double that number of birds may be kept — a 

 stock doubtless too great for the area, but very small when compared with the 

 numbers that used to be retained on various rivers in the country. The Swanpit 



59 



