Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-12-21
TIE QUEENS SWANS.
Thames Trippers Admire Their SNOWY
Piunage and Evfnce q Keen
Interest I'm Them.

/ AA4neS Tr1ppers Admire Their SNOWY
Piunage and Evfnce q Keen
Interest I'm Them.
The swans ON the Thames are a.
much part of its scenery as its
grasses and sedges and piers.
Thames trippers by the thousand
have noticed and admired their snowy
Ylumage, and now and again water.
men are questioned as to the owner
ship of the birds. These, by the way
Of answer, shake their heads and cay,
They've been on the river a day or
two, I reckon" which is only an
other way of stating from time imme-
ignorance as to possession.
AS matter of fact, the swans on
the Thames belong to the Queen, the
WINNERS Company and the Dyers Com
pany, and they date back a Thames
ancestry for hundreds of years.
der Majesty's swan-keeper, is Ab-
nett, Jr., the son of the swan-keeper
TO the Winners Company.
Abnett, ST., is CHEEKY, chatty man
OF some sixty years, and he lives in q
neat little cottage at East Molesey.
The value of a cob and hen-a pair
some less. The swans breed up THE
river; the lowest place where they
have nest is Chiswick. Along the
banks of the river men are paid to
look after them in nesting time, and
they place straw and little bits of
stick and dried grass about for the
birds.
A swans egg is of goodly proper.
rxr1ff 10
three hens eggs, and suggesting in
form and color the eggs of an ostrich.
The hen bird sits on her eggs for six
weeks, >thundery weather." to use the
swan-keeper's words, bringing out
the young ones few days sooner"
The cob takes his turn at sitting.
releasing his mate for food and ex.
ercise. His fatherliness, however, is
not sustained, as when the cygnets
are a week old, he. appears to lose all
interest in them, and leaves family
cares to fall entirely upon the mother
bird The parent swans getting on
the Swallows, pull up quantities of
Tiver-weed, which they tear up very
small and place before the baby cyg-
nets. For the first mine months OF
their existence the young ones are of
slate color, but at that age they be-
gin to turn brown and white, and at
twelve months their plumage Is all
white. The cygnets of the black swan
do not at first differ in appearance
from those of the white, the plumage
of the black adult swan being below
the top feathers almost as white as
snow.
The cygnets follow the hen very
closely for the first year of their lives;
after twelve months she begins to
beat them off.
Should there be an odd number of
cygnets in "a brood the odd hen is
counted to the owner of the co5-be
he Queens bird, Winners, or Dyers'
When the cygnets have attained
about two months, a trial awaits them
Every year the "swan tipping" voy.
age takes place. But the story of the
tipping" is we'll told in the words of
Abnett senior.
'We started this year from South
wark Bridge with six boats; two boats
OF her majesty rowing six men, and
two boats of the Dyer's and two of the
WINNERS Company, with five men
each. The first boats crew that
sighted any of the swans shouted
Haul up and the blessed swans know
the meaning of that cry as we'll as
them that utters it. UP go their long
necks, and they try their level best to
get away, the cygnets following close.
The boats was after them, one behind
the other in position, and closing
gradually in they penned the birds
between boats and bank Closer and
closer we came until we could reach
some of them by hand; others were
brought near by by the swan-hook-
a bill-shaped hook at the end of long
pole. Now there is only one right
way to handle swan, young or old.
and that is to pick it up and bring it's
legs over its back. Having caught our
bird, we mark it on the mandible.
The Queens mark is diamond; that
OF the Winners Company two hicks.
that of the Overs one nick and a
cross bar. The marking, when skill
fully performed, doesn't hurt the
birds; their beaks, you see, are horny,
like our nails
''What is the reason of the 'upping;'
what instinct impels the swans to the
Journey" we asked the swan-master.
Hunger, there can be no doubt. You
see years ago, before the embankment
was reared, the birds used to be all
around about Wandsworth, Black.
friars, and so on, drawn there by the
granaries. During the time that the
eNcursionists are about they follow
them for bread and food, which is
freely thrown them. But when the
trippers have gone, and the chances OF
food with them, instinct teaches the
birds to go where the corn falls
Swans live to a ripe old age, unless
accident or malevolence carries them
off. Sometimes it falls to the duty Of
the swan-keeper to bind up broken
leg, or wounded wing. but it is sell
dom a bird RECEIVERS when its wings
are seriously hurt.
Fortunately for bird-life both acct
dent and animosity are rare, and there
are one or two centenarian swans at
Windsor today, and several that have
passed their jubilee.
Every year from one to three dozen
cygnets are fa,tened for the Royal ia
BILE and for presentation by the Queen
to her private friends.
They are chosen at six or seven
months old, kept In confinement for
six weeks, and fed ON the best oats
and harlev-meai. When suffeiAnt1v
plump they are killed, and sent to
the Royal kitchens.
It is not perhaps. generally known