178 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



hither by the Romans. It seems to have been early imder 

 protection for, according to Dugdale, a licence was gi'anted 

 in the reign of Henry I to the Abbot of Amesbury to kill 

 Hares and Pheasants, and that later they were artificially 

 reared and fattened appears from Upton, who wrote about 

 the middle of the 15th century, while Henry VIII seems 

 from his privy purse expenses to have had in his household 

 in 1532 a French priest as a regular " fesaunt breder," and 

 in the accovmts of the Kytsons of Hengrave in Suffolk for 

 1607, mention is made of wheat to feed Pheasants, Partridges 

 and Quails, In ancient times Pheasants were taken in 

 snares as well as by Hawks. In Barlow's prints (1655) 

 this bird (called "Feasant — Phasianus") is showTi being 

 pursued by a Hawk. 

 Pheasant Dtjck : The PINTAIL. (Beverley, Yorkshire.) 

 Philip or Phip : The HOUSE-SPARROW. (Provincial.) 

 Swainson says it is from the note. It may originate, 

 however, in Skelton's poem " Philip Sparrow." The names 

 are also applied to the HEDGE-SPARROW. 

 Phiixepene : The LAPWING. (Ireland.) 

 Phillip's Fulm.\r : SCHLEGEL'S PETREL. (Godman.) 

 Philomel: The NIGHTINGALE. The name is frequently 

 met with in poetical and other allusions to this bird, as well 

 as several times in Shakespeare, and arises from the classical 

 tale (to' be met with in Ovid's " Metamorphoses," bk. vi, 

 fab. 6) of the transformation of Pliilomela, daughter of 

 Pandion, King of Athens, into a Nightingale. Philomela, 

 finding herself deceived by Tereus, had her tongue cut 

 out by him to hinder her from revealing the truth ; being 

 finally turned by the gods into a Nightingale, whence the 

 name of Philomela and the poetic allusion to her supposed 

 sad recapitulation of her wrongs. It was formerly supposed 

 that the bird sang with its breast impaled upon a thorn, 

 thus accentuating " the well-tun'd warble of her nightly 

 sorrow." This popular error is alluded to by Shakespeare 

 in " The Passionate Pilgrim " : — 



She, poor bird, as all forlorn, 

 Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn, 

 And there sung the dolefull'st ditty. 

 That to hear it was great pity. 

 Sir Philip Sidney, also, in one of his sonnets, says that 

 this bird 



Sing? out her woes, a thorn her song-book making. 

 Fletcher and Pomfret, also, among the later poets, allude 

 to it. 



