MUTE SWAN. 215 



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 were 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 

 supposed to be cut on the upper surface of the upper man- 

 dible. 



Nos. 1 and 2 were the royal swan-marks of Henry the 

 Eighth, and Edward the Sixth. No. 3 was the swan- 

 mark of the Abbey of Swinstede, on the Witham in Lin- 

 colnshire ; and I may notice that the crosier, or crook, is 

 borne by the divine, the cowherd, the shepherd, the goat- 

 herd, the swanherd, and the gooseherd, as emblematic of 

 a pastoral life and the care of a flock. 



No. 4 was the swan-mark of Sir Edward Dimock of 

 Lincolnshire. The king's champion, it will be recollected, 

 is of this family, who hold " the mannour at Scrivelsby in 

 Lincolnshire by that tenure, to come armed on horsebacke 



