472 Anatidce. 



of gentle, peaceful manners, it becomes very pugnacious during 

 the breeding season ; and I well recollect when a boy at Eton, 

 while sculling in a light skiff near the rushy banks of an eyot on 

 the Thames, I unconsciously found myself in close proximity to 

 a Swan's nest, and the old bird came at me with such furious 

 aspect of beak and wings that I made my escape as fast as 

 possible, fairly driven off' by the victorious bird, which even 

 followed me for some distance, triumphing over my defeat. There 

 is one simple mark of difference whereby the W hooper may be 

 distinguished from the Mute Swan, viz., the colours of their 

 respective beaks. In C. musiciw the beak is black at the point 

 and reddish yellow at the base ; in C. olor these colours are re- 

 versed, the point of the beak being of a reddish orange colour, 

 the base black. In other respects the two birds seem externally 

 alike, though on dissection they show several anatomical differ- 

 ences of structure. The Mute Swan has been from early times 

 reckoned a royal bird in England, said to have been brought 

 from Cyprus and introduced into this country by Richard I. ;* 

 and I learn from Yarrell that 'anciently the Crown had an 

 extensive swannery annexed to the Royal Palace or Manor of 

 Clarendon, in Wiltshire.' The privilege of having a swan-mark 

 or ' game ' of swans was considered a high honour in old time, 

 and was seldom granted except to those of high rank in Church 

 or State, or to corporate bodies of some pretensions to dignity. 

 All such owners of Swans were registered in the book of the 

 royal Swan-herd ; and swan-marks, cut on the upper surface of 

 the upper mandible of the beak, were most jealously guarded. 

 So long ago as in the eleventh year of Henry VII. (A.D. 1496) a 

 law was passed that ' no manner of person, of what condition or 

 degree he be, take or cause to be taken, be it upon his own 

 ground or any other man's, the egg of any Swan out of the nest r 

 upon pain of imprisonment for a year and a day and a fine at 

 the King's will.'f The conceit that this species was accustomed 



'Birds of Somerset,' by Mr. Cecil Smith, p. 472. 



t 'Journal of Archaeological Institute,' vol. xli., p. 295. See whole 

 passage on ' Swan Marks,' treated archaeologically. 



