BEWICK'S SWAN 267 



The young, called " cygnets," when hatched and for some time 

 afterwards, are of a light bluish-grey colour. The parents are 

 very jealous of their nest and young, the male being mostly 

 at hand during sitting, and fierce in repelling intruders. The food 

 consists of vegetable matters chiefly, but it also includes various 

 water mollusca, Crustacea, annelids, insect larvae, and the smaller 

 fishes ; and there is no doubt that fish spawn forms a dainty morsel 

 of these birds, also of geese and ducks, which thus destroy large 

 quantities of valuable material. 



The swan, admitted emperor of majestic appearance and bearing 

 on water, has been protected from a very early date by both legal 

 and regal interference, they being declared to be exclusively 

 " royal " or king's property, and no subject allowed to hold pos- 

 session of these birds save under special favour from the sovereign, 

 the ownership being denoted by a " swan " mark, that of the crown, 

 and of the Dyers' and Vintners' Companies taking place on the 

 first Monday in August, the mark being cut in the bill. The crown 

 mark consists of five diamonds, that of the University of Oxford 

 an arrangement of crosses, Cambridge of three buckles, whilst 

 the Vintners' Company mark these birds with a double chevron. 

 In Henry VII's reign the theft of a swan's egg was deemed an 

 offence punishable by a year's imprisonment, and the theft of a 

 swan itself was very severely punished. 



CYGNETS, or young swans, are still regarded as a royal dish, 

 they being prepared for King Edward VII's table by his swan 

 keeper at Hampton Court, thirty-six of the cygnets in the Thames 

 being fattened in each year for use at His Majesty's table at Christ- 

 mas, cygnets having been a royal delicacy for many years past. 

 The birds are selected from those hatched in the Thames during 

 the year : the swans on the river being owned by the King and the 

 Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, and are kept several weeks in a 

 wired-in enclosure on the Thames, where they receive special diet 

 to fit them for table use. Of course, all the cygnets are not con- 

 sumed at the King's table, some of them being sent as presents 

 by King Edward to other royalties and personal friends of His * 

 Majesty. 



No greater ornament exists on a lake or river than the swan, 

 and in utility it is to deep water in destroying bottom growth of weeds 

 what the duck effects so well in shallow water by keeping the sur- 

 face free from duckweed, etc. The swan, including the black 

 swan (Cygnus atratus), an Australian species first discovered in 

 1698, is kept in many ornamental waters ; but it is not advisable 

 to introduce swans to water planted with water-lilies (Nymphaeas), 

 as they are apt to pull the plants to pieces, or to plant water-lilies 

 in lakes inhabited by swans. 



BEWICK'S SWAN (Cygnus minor or Bewicki) passes the winter 

 in Britain and flies northwards in spring. Its length is about 4 ft. 



