400 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
WHIT®, OR HIGH-BACKED SWAN. 
The process of marking the swans is termed swan-upping , a name which has 
been corrupted into swan-hopping , and is conducted with much ceremony. The 
technical term of the swan-mark is cigninota. Swan-upping of the Thames takes 
place in the month of August, the first Monday in the month being set aside 
for the purpose, when the markers of the Crown and the Dyers’ and Vintners’ 
companies take count of all swans in the river, and mark the clear-billed birds. 
which have reached maturity. The 
fishermen who protect the birds and 
aid them in nesting/ are entitled to a 
fee for each young bird. 
Swans are very destructive enemies 
to fish, devouring the smaller species 
but doing the largest damage in the 
spawning season, when they will leave 
any other kind of food for fish-spawn, 
and have been known to entirely depopu¬ 
late ponds of the best food species, such 
as bass, croppie, pike, and carp. 
The swan builds her nest of sticks 
and straw, and usually locates it beside 
the water’s edge of an unfrequented 
island. She generally lays six or seven 
eggs, of a dull or very pale green color, 
like the duck’s, though I have seen the 
eggs as white as that of a hen’s. When incubating, the swan is prompt to resist 
any invasion of her premises, and becomes a furious fighter in defence of her 
young. The cygnets—young—are covered with a fluffy down of light blue, no 
feathers showing until they are two months old. During the first few weeks 
of their life they mount upon the 
mother’s back, who conveys them from 
place to place. If on shore she helps 
them to gain their position by lifting 
them by one leg, but when in the 
water she sinks until her back is level 
with the surface, when they easily 
scramble into a secure place. 
The species are not very numer¬ 
ous, and include only the Trum¬ 
peting Swan ( Cygnus buccinator), the 
Small Swan ( Cygnus minor), the 
Whistling Swan {C. americanus), the 
White Swan (C. olcr) and the Black 
Swan (C. atratus ), the former being 
the only species well known in this country, though the whistling swan was 
formerly quite plentiful at certain seasons in Chesapeake Bay. 
The Goose-anger, or Goose-sawer (Mergus merganser ), also called Water- 
pheasant, Sheldrake , Saw-bill , and other local names, is a really beautiful bird, 
combining features of the goose, duck and cormorant. His home is in northern 
latitudes, extending around the globe near the Arctic circle, and southward to 
BTACK, OR MOURNING SWAN. 
