Miscellaneous. 257 



Atlantic ; for hitherto their remains have been found only on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. In the fossil state, Ziphii (C/ione- 

 ziphius, Duv.) abound in the Antwerp Crag. — Comptes Rendus, 

 Aug. 6, 1866, pp. 271-272. 



Notes on the Domestic Animals and Plants of the Thirteenth and 

 Fourteenth Centuries. By James E. Thorold Rogers, M.A., 

 &c. &c. 



In Prof. Rogers's recently published 'History of Agriculture and 

 Prices in England, compiled entirely from original and contemporary 

 Records, from 1259 to 1400,' there are some interesting facts con- 

 nected with domestic animals, which, being derived from contempo- 

 rary records, are of undoubted authority : — 



" Partridges were plentiful enough, and were, it appears, generally 

 captured by hawks, and occasionally in nets. Hares may have 

 existed, probably did; but I have never seen an entry of them. 

 Pheasants were, it seems, unknown. Rabbits were found in some 

 localities, but they were very dear" (vol. i. p. 65). 



" I do not doubt that these [hare and pheasant] existed, as they 

 are mentioned in chronicles and recited in deeds " (p. 33). 



"The banquet [the determination feast of Richard, the son of 

 Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, on Shrove Tuesday, 1398] appears 

 to have lasted two days. The quantity of beef and mutton con- 

 sumed was not large ; no wonder, for the feast was held in winter ; but 

 pork, lamb, and veal were abundantly supplied. Kid is also found ; 

 a rare article of food with our ancestors. The poultry consumed in 

 the feast is the largest and most characteristic item. Fowls, capons, 

 geese, ducks, swans, and peacocks are purchased. Amongst wild 

 fowl we find partridges, teals, wild ducks, Gastrimargii (which I 

 cannot identify), snipes, plovers, ousels (that is, blackbirds), thrushes, 

 and fieldfares, and, lastly, Upupcs, which should mean hoopoes, 

 though I can hardly imagine that these birds could have been found 

 in this country in winter time. The swans and geese were fattened 

 in coops on oats and peas. Rabbits, bought as usual at high prices, 

 are also found, forty couple of which are brought from Bushey, in 

 Herts" (pp. 122-123). 



Chapter xvi., "The Price of Live Stock," p. 326, contains some 

 most interesting particulars. We extract the following : — " The same 

 kind of stock which is now kept on an English farm was kept five or 

 six hundred years ago. Oxen, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, and poultry 

 were almost invariably reared, though, of course, just as now, lands 

 which were either not available for sheep-farming, or were more 

 profitably occupied in the manufacture of dairy produce, maintained 

 no sheep" (p. 326). "Pigs, too, were the most important kind of 

 animal food. The necessity of using salted meat during a moiety of 

 the year led our forefathers to breed pigs largely, since no meat, it 

 appears, takes salt more readily or preserves its nutritive properties 

 after curing so fully as pork. And besides, poultry, to judge from 

 the price and from the frequent recurrence of poultry-rents in the 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xviii. 18 



