FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 155 



the Governor of Greenwich, and this is the last instance 

 on record of peacock eating. 



The peacock had prodigious success among the Komans. 

 Quintus Hortensius was the first who had them served 

 in a banquet ; and the novelty made an extraordinary- 

 sensation at Kome, becoming so much the fashion that 

 no feast was thought complete without them. Marcus 

 Aufidius Livio contrived a way to fatten them, and made 

 above £50,000 by the sale. Horace pref'erred them to 

 the finest poultry. Tiberius reared them, and put to 

 death a soldier who had the misfortune to kill one. 



The peacock was considered during the ages of chivalry 

 not merely an exquisite delicacy, but a dish of peculiar 

 solemnity. After being roasted it was again decorated 

 with its plumage, and a sponge dipped in lighted spirits 

 of wine was placed in its bill. When it was introduced 

 on days of grand festival it was the signal for the adven- 

 turous knights to take upon them vows to do some deed 

 of chivalry " before the peacock and the ladies." Ulti- 

 mately they were voted indigestible, and were served 

 up in their skins and feathers to be looked at, but not 

 eaten. 



The peacock is stated to have been one of the famous 

 dishes at the costly royal banquets of old, and the re- 

 ceipt for dressing it is thus given :— 



" Take and flay off" the skin with the feathers, tail, 

 and the neck and head thereon; then take the skin 

 and all the feathers and lay it on the table abroad, 

 and strew thereon ground cumin; then take the pea- 

 cock and roast him, and baste him with raw yolks of 

 eggs ; and when he is roasted, take him off and let him 

 cool awhile, then take him and sew him in his skin, 

 and gild his comb, and so serve him forth with the last 

 course." 



Game Birds. — The little bustard {Otis tetrax, Tetrax 

 campestris. Leach) is taken in nets in France like the 

 partridge ; it weighs about 25 ounces. The flesh has 

 the appearance of a young pheasant. The Bengal flori- 

 ken {Sypheotides bengakmis, Gm.), an Asiatic species, is 



