SIXTEENTH CENTURY 109 
Some of these were evidently Michaelmas Geese, which 
had been fatted on the stubbles on shelled-out grain. We 
have besides entries of : 
ij grene geese [7.e., off the grass in spring] vd. 
j dosen greengeese xvd. 
Warner’s man for iij greengeese ij 
the vykers woman of Dokkynge for ij green geese and a 
hundrethe eggs ill 
Origin of the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor).—Whether the Mute 
Swan—that is to say the silent Swan, as compared with the 
musical Whooper—is indigenous or not to the British Isles 
must be a matter of opinion. Professor Newton takes the 
view that so much early protection by law is indicative of 
its having been an introduced bird,* but Europe was its 
original habitat, so the theory of introduction is not neces- 
sitated. Newton also considers that it was once far more 
abundant in England than it is at the present time, and this 
seems to be justified by old records. Although wild Swans 
occasionally stay a while with tame ones, and have been even 
known to mate with them, they never produce any hybrid 
progeny, showing how distinct the two species are, which indeed 
their different carriage plainly proves. 
Domestication of the Mute Swan.—We have seen what 
importance was attached to Swans in the fifteenth century, 
and also later than that, as clearly indicated by the rights 
and privileges appertaining to them.ft Capello, de Najera, 
Jovius and Vergil in turn allude to the English Swans, but 
the last named notes that they were sometimes “not soe 
small a pleasure to the beeholder as a great greefe of 
minde.”{ Here he must mean that quarrels took place 
for possession, the ownership of cygnets being difficult to 
establish, but to remedy this state of things a system of 
marks was invented. 
Swan-rights were by no means diminished during the 
sixteenth century ; whether emanating from the Crown, or 
on behalf of the religious houses, they had to be enforced, 
and the penalties for infringing them were exceedingly severe. 
* “ Dictionary of Birds,” p. 929. 
t Supra, pp. 70, 82. 
+ English History. (‘‘Camden Soc. Tr.,’’ 1846, Vol. I., p. 23.) 
