d'M A DESCRIPTION OF 
ment to that noble river." Latham says the estimation 
they were held in, in the reign of Edward IV., was such, 
that no one who possessed a freehold of less than the clear 
yearly value of five marks, was permitted even to keep 
any. In those times, hardly a piece of water was left unoc- 
cupied by these birds, as well on account of the gratifica- 
tion they gave to the eye of their lordly owners, as that 
which they also afforded when they graced the sumptuous 
board at the splendid feasts of that period : but the fashion 
of those days has passed away, and Swans are by no means 
so common now as they were formerly, being by most 
people accounted a coarse kind of food, and consequently 
held in little estimation : but the Cygnets (so the young 
Swans are called) are still fattened for the table, and are 
sold very high, commonly for a guinea each, and some- 
times more ; hence it may be presumed they are better 
food than is generally imagined. 
At Abbotsbury there was formerly a noble Swannery, 
the property of the Earl of Ilchester, where six or seven 
hundred birds were kept ; but the collection has of late 
been much diminished. The Swannery belonged anciently 
to the abbot, and, previously to the dissolution of mo- 
nasteries, the Swans frequently amounted to double the 
above number. 
From the whiteness of this bird, the expression of a 
"Black Swan" was used in ancient times as equivalent to 
a nonentity ; but a species nearly all black has been dis- 
covered of late years in Australia. This bird is larger 
than the white Swan. Its bill is a rich scarlet. The 
whole plumage (except the primaries and secondaries, 
which are white) is of the most intense black. 
Swans are very long lived, sometimes attaining the 
great age of a century and a half. 
