266 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



the Fifth and " ane ambassadour of the Paipes " on the 

 braes of Athole in 1529, everything that could be obtained 

 was brought that the king and his guests should be 

 "verrie weill entertained." One of the manuscripts of 

 Lindsay of Pitscottie's account of this feast enumerates the 

 viands served 'to the royal guests; and although some 

 authorities regard the list as an interpolation of later date, 

 this but increases its significance from our point of view. 

 The birds set before the king were "capon, cran [crane or 

 perhaps heron], swan, pairtrick [partridge], plover, duik, 

 drake, brissel-cock [turkey-cock or perhaps guinea-fowl], 

 and paunies [cf. Lat. pavones peacocks], black-cock, and 

 muirfoull, capercailles." Here in a wonderfully detailed list, 

 in spite of the fact that a rare bird like the Peacock is 

 referred to, there is no mention of the Pheasant. There 

 is some reason, therefore, for concluding that the Pheasant 

 was not available. 



Other evidence supports this conclusion. In 1551, in 

 the reign of Queen Mary, an attempt was made to regulate 

 the price of wild fowl and game, a standard price being 

 fixed for each variety; and though wild and tame Geese, 

 Blackcocks, Plovers. Curlew, Moor-fowl, Partridges, Wood- 

 cock, Snipe, Quails, and even Larks, are specified (see 

 p. 140) there is no allusion to the Pheasant. Four years 

 later a law was passed by the Scottish Parliament, enacting 

 that Pouts [young Partridges], Moorfowl, Ducks, Drakes, 

 Teal, and " Goldings," were not to be killed before Michael- 

 mas under pain of ^10, but Pheasants are not mentioned. 

 There is here presumptive evidence that in the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, Pheasants were either absent from 

 Scotland or, if present, were very rare, being, it may be, 

 kept for ornament in the gardens of the great. I ndeed, even a 

 quarter of a century later, Bishop Leslie remarks upon their 

 rarity in so many words, which read in the quaint translation 

 of Father Dalrymple : 



Farther because nathing is althrouch [throughout] fortunat and happie, 

 quhat ane way abundes with ws, another way intakes [is lacking] with vs, 

 and is indigent : for the foul called the storke, the fasiane, the turtle-dwe, 

 the feldifare, the nichtingale, with vthiris natiounis ar frequent, bot skairs 

 with us are fund. 



If the scarcity of the Pheasant was to be compared with that 



