34 PIIKASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



('(lited by ]!eriali Jjotfielil for the Koxliuru'li Club, wherein 

 (at p. 399), under tlio date of A]iri], 14()7, at Ipswich, there is 

 the entry- "Item xii. fesawiiles jiryse xii'." He adds that 

 there is apparently mi earliei- ni'mtion of the pheasant in 

 Norfolk than some I'eference in the accounts of the 

 L'Estrano-es at Ilunstanton in 1519, and the entrv above 

 rpioted is the earliest for Suffolk. Mr. Harting further 

 informs me that he has seen an a^ncient Psalter belonging to 

 Ijiird Aldeidiam, in which there is a very fair coloured 

 ]iiirtrait of a. cock pheasant, dated a.d. 12G0. 



In Essex the pheasant is mentioned in a bill of fare, 

 A.D. 11)59 (as already noticed), and this is ap])arentlv the 

 earliest allusion t(.> the bird to be fouiid in an_y part of 

 England. 



In Ireland, as stated by Tliom])S(in in his natnral history 

 of that country (1850), " Tlie period of its introduction is 

 unkiKjwn to me, but in tlie year 1589 it was remarked to be 

 common." Fynes Moryson, who was in Irela.nd from 1599 to 

 l(i(Jo, (iliserves that there are "such plenty of pheasants as I 

 have known sixty ser\-ed up at one feast, and abound much 

 more with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce." 



In Scotland the ])he:isant does not a.ppear to have been 

 ]n'eserved at a very early pei'iod. Mr. K. <iray, in his work 

 on "The Eirds of the West of ScDtland," says: "The first 

 mention of the ]dieasa,ut in old Scotch jVcts is in one dated 

 June S, 1594, in which year a keen sportsman occupied the 

 Scottish throne." lie mrglit have been called "James the 

 protectiir " of all kinds of gann-, as in the aforesaid vcar he 

 "ordained that quhatsumover per8(jn or personnes at onv time 

 hereafter shall liap]ien tu slay deir, harts, ])heasants, fuulls, 

 ])artrieks, or other wyld ibide ipihatsumever, ather with o-iin, 

 cnjce bnw, dogges, lialks, (n- giriies, uv by uther ino'iue 

 (pihatsuniever, or that bcis iuund schutting wiih onv yam 

 therein," &c., X'c, shall pay the usual " hundretli puiuls," etc. 



The distribution of the pheasant over (ireat Ib-itain and 

 Ireland at the present time is very gcnei-al, it being ibund in 



