28 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



record of tlie occurrence of tlie pheasant in Great Britain is. 

 to be found in the tract ' De inventione Sanctas Crucis nostree 

 in Monte Acuto at de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham/ 

 edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor 

 Stubbs, and published in 1861. The bill of fare drawn up by- 

 Harold for the Canons' households of from six to seven, 

 persons, A.D. 1059, and preserved in a manuscript of the 

 date of circa 1177, was as follows (p. 16) : 



Erant autem tales pitantise unicuiqiie canonico : a festo Sancti Michaelis- 

 usque ad caput jejunii [Ash Wednesday] ant xii merulse, aut ii aganseae- 

 \_Agace, a magpie (?), Ducangel, aut ii perdices, ant unns pliasianus, 

 reliquis temporibns ant ancge TGreese, Ducancje] ant gallinae. 



''Now the point of this passage is that it shows that 

 Phasianus colcMcus had become naturalised in England before 

 the Norman invasion; and as the English and Danes were not. 

 the introducers of strange animals in any well authenticated 

 case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced 

 by tho Roman conquerors, who naturalised the fallow deer in 

 Britain." 



" The eating of magpies at "VValtham, though singular, 

 was not as remarkable as the eating of horse by the monks of 

 St. Galle in the time of Charles the Great and the returning- 

 thanks to God for it : 



Sit feralis equi caro dnlcis sub crnce Cliristi ! 



The bird was not so unclean as the horse — the emblem of 

 paganism — was unholy." 



But the conclusion that the pheasant was introduced into- 

 England before the Norman Conquest is not regarded as- 

 proved by those authorities who consider the tract " De- 

 inventione Crucis" as a miracle-mongering work that no 

 cautious antiquary would accept as conclusive evidence. 



In Dugdale's "Monasticon Anglicanum " is a reference- 

 by which it appears that the Abbot of Amesbury obtained a 

 licence to kill hares and pheasants in the first years of the- 



