38 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
fodder of cattle, thatch for covering houses, and many other 
useful things. It is moreover productive of birds and fishes. 
For there are various rivers, and very many waters and ponds 
abounding in fish.” Besides the ‘‘ Anseres innumere ”’ of the 
“‘ Liber Eliensis, ’’ the Bitterns, the Mallards, the Coots and 
Herons, which were all food for a scanty population, and which 
Hugh the White probably had in mind, there were many other 
birds, could we but know their names. Also there were eels, 
which formed a staple article of food. By a very early Saxon 
Charter we learn that “I Eadgay, King ... added to the 
former gift, every year, for those monks [of the Abbey of 
Ely] ten thousand Eel fishes . . . .”” Four thousand eels were 
a yearly present from the monks of Ramsey to those of 
Peterborough.* ‘‘In Wisbece abb de Ramesi viii piscatores, 
reddv mil 7 cc. lx anguill”’ (Domesday),—a large contribution 
for these fishermen to pay. Ely is even supposed to take its 
name from the eels, and certainly the isle enjoyed great 
advantages from its fresh-water fisheries. Domesday dis- 
tinguishes the owners of fishing rights as piscatores, and no 
doubt they were people of importance, and not at all confined 
to the fens. In Norfolk there were thirty-two piscatores, and 
Domesday allows as many as twenty-four for Suffolk. 
The Keeping of Bees, Swine, and Fowls.—But it must not 
be supposed that all England was like the Fen country. 
Tillage was carried on by the Saxon population in wide 
districts with a thrift and labour which brought in an 
abundant yield, in spite of the oppression exercised by William 
and his nobles. Coincident with the advance of agriculture, 
the rearing of bees had been an important part of Saxon 
industry, and was one which could be easily continued. 
The apium custos was one of the assistants in husbandry 
enumerated in Domesday. 
Of the rights of Fisheries, by no means confined to fresh 
water, we have already had evidence, and many traces which 
still show their importance are extant. Swine were largely 
bred, but can have been little more than semi-domesticated. 
Much of the value of the forests consisted in the oak and 
beech mast, which supplied food to the numerous herds, and, 
according to the laws of King Ine (or Ini), the worth of a tree 
* Dugdale’s ‘‘ Monasticon Anglicanum”’ (Vol. IT., p. 546, and V., p- 144). 
