SWANS. 143 



the said Joan Young and T. Saunger pleaded that 

 the said estuary, before the Inquisition taken, was 

 seised by the Abbots of Abbotsbury in fee, as well as 

 its banks and soil (solum), and that not only at the 

 time of the Inquisition, but from time out of mind, 

 there was, as now, a game (volatus) of swans and 

 cygnets nesting, breeding, and haunting there, which 

 the Abbot and his predecessors had the use and 

 enjoyment of, and being wild, they were not accus- 

 tomed to have them marked, but bred them up for 

 the use of the kitchen and for hospitality, and that 

 some of the cygnets they marked by cutting off the 

 pinions of the wings to prevent flight. Subsequently 

 the said Abbot surrendered the premises to King 

 Henry VIII., who, about the thirty-fifth year of his 

 reign, granted them to Giles Strangways, Esq., by 

 letter patent in the fullest sense ; and after the death 

 of Giles it descended to Giles Strangways, his cousin 

 and heir, who demised the said game of swans to the 

 defendants for one year. It was ruled that all white 

 swans not marked, and having gained their natural 

 liberty and swimming in an open river, might be 

 seized to the King's use by his prerogative, because 

 they are royal birds. It was also ruled that the plea 

 of prescription was insufficient, as the effect of pre- 

 scription is that all swans which are ferce natures, 

 and which nest, breed, and haunt within the manor, 

 can only be claimed as long as they remain there ; 

 but if the defendants had alleged that from time 

 out of mind there had been a game of wild swans, 

 marked, nesting, breeding, and haunting, and had 



