216 ANATID2E. 



dark ; head, neck, and all the upper surface of the body, 

 nearly uniform sooty-greyish brown; the under surface 

 also uniform, but of a lighter shade of greyish brown. 

 Young birds at the end of October nearly as large as the 

 old birds. After the second autumn moult but little of 

 the grey plumage remain* When two years old they are 

 quite white, and breed in their third year. 



The figure here inserted represents the windpipe and 



breast-bone of the Mute Swan. The keel is single, unpro- 

 vided with any cavity ; the windpipe descends between the 

 branches of the forked bone, and curving in the form of 

 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 I 

 am 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. I allude 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 I can afford space for little more than an outline, but 



