©National Archives
 
 

Swan Marks, 1497-1515

Painted roll showing the distinguishing marks placed upon the bills of swans belonging to various persons in parts of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

The swan has always been regarded as a 'bird royal' which no subject may own without a licence from the Crown. Licensed birds are required to have distinguishing marks incised on their beaks.

An annual 'swan-upping' takes place on the Thames every summer to mark the cygnets belonging to the Crown and to the Companies of Vintners and Dyers, who alone may keep swans on that river.