A dictionary of cygnetures

UK: LOCKED bill to bill on the five vellum rolls or membranes shown above, the longest of them stretching to 34in (86cm), are no fewer than 99 swan heads showing the different mandible marks used by ‘gamesters’ on the East Anglian Broadlands.

The bird had been a royal one from the Middle Ages, when both swan and cygnet were much-prized table…

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