MUTE SWAN. 331 



No persons having Swans could appoint a new swauberd 

 without the king's swanherd's licence. Every swanherd on 

 the stream was hound to attend upon the king's swanherd 

 upon warning, or suffer fine. The king's swanherd was 

 bound to keep a book of swan-marks, and no new marks 

 were permitted to interfere with old ones. Owners of Swans 

 and their swanherds were registered in the king's swan- 

 herd's book. 



The marking of the cygnets was generally performed in 

 the presence of all the swanherds on that stream, and on 

 a particular day or days, of which all had notice. Cygnets 

 received the mark found on the parent birds, but if the old 

 Swans bore no mark, the whole were seized for the king, and 

 marked accordingly. No swanherd to affix a mark but in 

 the presence of the king's swanherd or his deputy. 



Formerly, when a Swan made her nest on the banks of 

 the river, rather than on the islands, one young bird was 

 given to the owner of the soil, who protected the nest, and 

 this was called ' the ground bird.' A money consideration, 

 instead of a young bird, is still given. When, as it some- 

 times happened, the male bird of one owner mated with a 

 female bird belonging to another, the brood was divided 

 between the owners of the parent birds ; the odd cygnet, when 

 there was one, being allotted to the owner of the male bird. 



The swan-mark, called by Sir Edward Coke cigninota, 

 was cut in the skin on the beak of the Swan with a sharp 

 knife or other instrument. These marks consisted of an- 

 nulets, chevrons, crescents, crosses, initial letters, and other 

 devices, some of which had reference to the heraldic arms 

 of, or the office borne by, the Swan owner. 



The representations on the next page are swan-marks 

 supposed to be cut on the upper surface of the upper 

 mandible. 



Nos. 1 and 2 were the royal swan-marks of Henry VIII. 

 and Edward VI. No. 3 was the swan-mark of the Abbey 

 of Swinstede, on the Witham ; and the Author may remark 

 that the crosier, or crook, is borne by the divine, the cow- 

 herd, the shepherd, the goatherd, the swanherd, and the 



