28 PHUASANTS FOB COVBBTS AND AVIARIES. 



record of the occurrence of tlie pheasant in Great Britain is- 

 to be found in the tract ' De inventione Sanctae Crucis nostrsB' 

 in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham/ 

 edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor- 

 Stubbsj 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 unicuique canonico : a f esto Sancti Michaelis- 

 usque ad caput jejuuii [Ash Wednesday] aut xii merulse, aut ii aganseae^ 

 [Agace, a magpie (?), Ducange], aut ii perdices, aut unus phasianus, 

 reliquis temporibus aut ancse [Geese, Ducange] aut gaUinse. 



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

 Phasianus colchicus 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 the Eoman conquerors, who naturalised the fallow deer in 

 Britain." 



"The eating of magpies at Waltham, 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 dulcis sub eruce Christi ! 



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- 

 mventione 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- 



