MUTE SWAN. 219 



No persons having Swans could appoint a new swanherd 

 without the king's swanherd's licence. 



Every swanherd on the stream was bound to attend 

 upon the king's swanherd upon warning, or suffer fine. 



The king's swanherd was bound to keep a book of swan- 

 marks, and no new marks were permitted to interfere with 

 old ones. 



Owners of Swans and their swanherds were registered 

 in the king's swanherd's book. 



The marking of the cygnets was generally performed in 

 the presence of all the swanherds on that stream, and on 

 a particular day or days, of which all had notice. Cygnets 

 received the mark found on the parent birds, but if the old 

 Swans bore no mark, the whole were seized for the king, 

 and marked accordingly. No swanherd to affix a mark 

 but in the presence of the king's swanherd or his deputy. 



Formerly, when a Swan made her nest on the banks of 

 the river, rather than on the islands, one young bird was 

 given to the owner of the soil, who protected the nest, and 

 this was called ' the ground bird.' A money consideration, 

 instead of a young bird, is still given. 



When, as it sometimes happened, the male bird of one 

 owner mated with a female bird belonging to another, the 

 brood was divided between the owners of the parent birds : 

 the odd cygnet, when there was one, being allotted to the 

 owner of the male bird. 



The swan-mark, called by Sir Edward Coke, cigninota, 

 was cut in the skin on the beak of the Swan with a sharp 

 knife or other instrument. These marks consisted of an- 

 nulets, chevrons, crescents, crosses, initial letters, and other 

 devices, some of which had reference to the heraldic arms 

 of, or the office borne by, the swan owner. 



The representations inserted overleaf are swan-marks sup- 

 posed to be cut on the upper surface of the upper mandible. 



