212 ANATID.E. 



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 

 this will be sufficient to shew the degree of value and 

 importance attached to the possession of the bird, and the 

 authorized power to protect it. 



In England the Swan is said to be a bird royal, in which 

 no subject can have property, when at large in a public 

 river or creek, except by grant from the crown. In 

 creating this privilege the crown grants a swan-mark. 



A silver swan was the principal device on the badge of 

 Henry the Fourth : derived from the Bohuns, Earls of Here- 

 ford, of which family his first wife was the daughter and co- 

 heiress. Another of his badges was a white antelope. 

 Henry the Fifth before his accession to the throne used the 

 silver swan; afterwards the fire-beacon appears to have 

 been his cognizance. Over his tomb in Westminster Abbey 

 is a representation of an antelope and a swan, chained to a 

 beacon. Montagu's Heraldry. 



In the twenty-second year of the reign of Edward the 



