SWAN UPPING 199 



portant bearing in maintaining their numbers. 

 Casualties unavoidably occur, such as the swamp- 

 ing of nests, and the consequent addling of eggs ; 

 the destruction of newly-hatched young by pike 

 or by accident ; deaths from cold or starvation 

 in winter, although at that season many of the birds 

 get housed and fed ; and so forth. It is pleasant 

 to know that the Thames-loving portion of the 

 public show consideration for the swans from choice, 

 and not from compulsion, although the swanherds 

 would not be slow to invoke the aid of the law 

 were it necessary to prevent the destruction of birds 

 or eggs. 



As to the legal status of the birds themselves, 

 the principle seems to be that when a swan is 

 reduced lawfully into the possession of a private 

 person, whether it be marked or not, he may be 

 said to have a property in it for the purpose of an 

 indictment at common law for larceny or otherwise ; 

 but that, if the bird be at liberty in the sea, or in a 

 navigable river, prima facie it belongs to the 

 Crown. 



Although it is not larceny to take the eggs of 

 swans, since the law has assigned a less punishment 

 for the offence by Statute, the eggs are protected 

 under sec. 24 of the Game Act, i & 2 Will. IV. cap. 

 32, which enacts that, " If any person not having 

 the right of killing the game upon any land — nor 

 having permission from the person having such 

 right — shall wilfully take out of the nest, or destroy 

 in the nest upon such land the eggs of any bird or 

 o-ame, or of any swan, wild duck, teal, or wigeon. 



