Class II. TAME SWAN. 



in England, that by an act of Edxvard IV. c. 6. 

 " no one that possessed a freehold of less clear 

 yearly value than five marks, was permitted to 

 keep any, other than the son of our sovereign 

 lord the king." And, by the eleventh of Henry 

 VII. c. 17. the punishment for taking their eggs 

 was imprisonment for a year and a day, and a 

 fine at the king's will. Though at present they 

 are not so highly valued as a delicacy, yet great 

 numbers are preserved for their beauty ; we see 

 multitudes on the Thames and Trent, but no 

 where in greater quantity than on the salt water 

 inlet of the sea, near Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire. 

 These birds were by the ancients consecrated 

 to Apollo and the Muses; 



— • — ev^cc KVKvo; {x,sXujoog 



Movo-a; ^s^aTfsvsi. Eurip. Iphig. in Taur. lin. 1104. 



And Callimachus, in his hymn upon the island 

 of Delos, is still more particular : 



MyjOviov 'riaxtwXw sKUKkwa-avT'o Xiitovteg 

 E^$oi/,a.Kis Tfs^i AryAov, STfriSio-ocv Ss Xo^siYi 



Tgrs^ov, o<rcrc(.'A.i kvkvoi STf ujSivsa-criv asKrav: 

 Oy$oov OVA St ccsKrav, o S'sk^to^sv. 



— — When from Pactolus golden banks 



Apollo's tuneful songsters, snowy swans 



Steering their flight, seven times their circling course 



