ITS INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN. 211 
and that we are probably indebted for this game-bird to 
the enterprise of the Romans. The earliest record, we 
believe, of the occurrence of the pheasant in this country 
will be found in the tract “De inventione Sanctz Crucis 
nostre in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud 
Waltham,” edited by Prof. Stubbs from manuscripts in 
the British Museum, and published in 1861.* In one of 
these manuscripts, dated about 1177, is the following bill 
of fare prescribed by Harold for the Canons’ Households, 
in 1059 :— 
“Erant autem tales pitantiz unicuique canonico: a 
festo Sancti Michaelis usque ad caput jejunii, aut xii. 
merule, aut ii. agausez, aut ii. perdices, aut unis phasianus, 
reliquis temporibus aut ance, aut galline.” 
Yarrell, in his “ History of British Birds,” gives an ex- 
tract from Dugdale’s “ Monasticon Anglicanum” to the 
effect that the Abbot of Amesbury obtained a licence from 
the king to kill pheasants, in the first year of Henry I. 
(1100). 
Leland, in his account of the feast given at the inthro- 
nisation of George Nevell, Archbishop of York, in the 
reign of Edward IV., tells us that, amongst other good 
things, two hundred “fesauntes” were provided for the 
guests. 
In the “ Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,” 
* See ‘‘ The Ibis,” 1869, p. 358. 
