SIXTEENTH CENTURY 103 
“And besides these three uncouth kind of fowls is one 
other kind of fowls in the Mers,* more uncouth, named Gustards 
as big as a Swan; but in the colour of their feathers, and 
taste of their flesh, they are little different from a Partridge. 
These last fowls are not frequent, but few in number; and 
so fairly hate the company of man, that if they find their 
eggs breathed upon or touched by men, they leave them, and 
lay eggs in another place. They lay their eggs on the bare 
earth.” 
An account of Boece or Boethius, born about 1465, died 
about 1536, is to be found in the ‘“ Dictionary of National 
Biography ” (V., 297),¢ as also a notice of Major.§ 
The Earl of Atholl’s Feast.—It was about this date ap- 
parently (1529) that the Harl of Atholl made lordly provision 
for James V. when that king went to hunt in Perthshire. 
No Solan Geese graced the table, but besides venison, no doubt 
in plenty, the preparations for feasting included, as we learn 
from the chronicler Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, goose, gryse 
{young pig], capon, cunning [rabbit], cran, swan, pairtrick 
[partridge], plever, duik, drake, brissel, cock [query brissel- 
cock = Guineafowl] and paunies [Peacocks], black-cock, and 
muirfoull and capercailles.|| Robert Lindsay’s “ cunnings ” 
were rabbits, and his “‘paunies” presumably Peacocks, 
which were always in request at great feasts, and were gene- 
rally served in their feathers. Jamieson gives “ pawn” and 
““pawne”’ as alternative spellings for the Peacock. The next 
author to mention the Capercaillie is John Lesley (or Leslie), 
who refers to it in 1578 as a bird inhabiting Ross and Inverness. 
Introduction of the Turkey. The Name Brissel.—The 
meaning of the name Brissel-cock in the above passage is some- 
what obscure, and gave rise to a notable discussion in 
“Notes and Queries,” in which Professor Newton and other 
correspondents took part.§[ Brissel-cock was at first con- 
* Mers, or Merse, that is the March or Border district of Berwickshire, 
“*Uncouth”’ is here used in the sense of ‘‘strange.”’ 
+ ‘‘ Cosmographe,” ch. XI. 
+ And another by W. H. Mullens, in ‘‘ A Bibliography of British Orni- 
thology,” 1916, p. 75. 
§ XXXV., 386. 
'! “Chronicles of Scotland,” 1728. 
q See «« Notes and Queries,’ 1880 and 1881, pp. 22, 369. 
