182 OUU DOilESTlC f OWLS. 



in winter ; and swans unnumbered, as in the 

 time of Homer, may still visit Cayster's* 

 springs, and there " stretch their long necks 

 and flap their rustling wings." 



At what period the swan became reclaimed 

 and naturahzed in western Europe and the 

 British Isles, we have no means of ascer- 

 taining, certainly it was at a remote date ; and 

 as the laws we have alluded to prove, this 

 noble bird was held in peculiar esteem. From 

 a digest of the British statutes relative to the 

 swan in the Penny Cyclopaedia, we take a few 

 extracts, to show their general tendency. The 

 crown alone has the right of granting a pro- 

 perty in swans on a public river, and con- 

 ceding this privilege a swan-mark is also 

 granted, for distinguishing the particular 

 "game" or flock of swans, from others on 

 the same river. Sometimes the crown, instead 

 of granting a swan-mark, confers the stiQ 

 further prerogative right of seizing within a 

 certain district all white or adult swans not 

 marked. "Thus the abbot of Abbotsbury, in 

 Dorsetshire, had a game of wild swans in -the 

 estuary formed by the isle of Portland and the 

 Chesil Bank. The swanneiy at Abbotsbury 



* A river in Asia Minor near Ephcsus. 



