MUTE SWAN. 



329. 



part of a circle, passes upwards and backwards to the bone 

 of divarication, and from thence by short tubes to the lungs. 



One subject having reference to this species of Swan 

 appears to be so closely connected with its history, that the 

 Author is induced to take a short notice of it, and the more 

 so because it has hitherto been passed over in other histories 

 of the birds of this country. He alludes to the privileges 

 granted to individuals or companies to keep and preserve 

 Swans on different streams ; and the many various swan- 

 marks adopted, by which each party might know their own 

 birds. The subject, in all its details, is so extensive that 

 he can aiford space for little more than an outline, but this 

 will be sufficient to show the degree of value and importance 

 attached to the possession of the bird, and the authorized 

 power to protect it. 



In England the Swan is said to be a bird royal, in which 

 no subject can have property when at large in a public 

 river or creek, except by grant from the crown. In creating 

 this privilege the crown grants a swan-mark.* 



A silver swan was the principal device on the badge of 

 Henry IV. ; derived from the Bohuns, Earls of Hereford, of 

 which family his first wife was the daughter and co-heiress. 

 Another of his badges was a white antelope. Henry V. 



* The history of Swan-marks forms a literature of its own ; and the Editor 

 can only reprint, with slight alterations, the original observations of the Author 

 on this subject. Some interesting details published in 'The Athenaeum,' 18th 

 August, 1877, are reproduced in ' The Zoologist ' of the same year (p. 445). 



VOL. IV. U U 



