126 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
it is here written, ‘‘sepy,”’ it comes three times into the 
Accounts, e.g., when in December 1527 three Geese and six 
Sepys are charged at sixpence. In the printed accounts it is 
mentioned once.* 
Of the Knot or “knatte”’ there are a good many entries. 
As many as forty come in once (p. 107), and another time 
it is four Knots, three Redshanks, “& vi grete [great] 
byrds,’ whatever that may mean. 
Woodcock and Snipe.—No bird is oftener alluded to than 
the Woodcock, whose merit for the spit was well known. 
This is one of the very few British birds which has not been 
provided with a string of provincial names. It is par excel- 
lence the bird of the woods, and has been so looked upon ever 
since the Saxons named it wudecoce or wudu-coc—an appella- 
tion which, or its equivalent, is given it in many countries. fT 
Especially numerous are the entries in 1548, in which year 
Mr. le Strange finds that sixty-eight were brought to the 
house, of which fifty-six were between October 20th and 
November lst; probably most of them were caught with 
horsehair nooses. 
The Snipe t is mentioned eight times, as appears by 
the following entries, which have been extracted by Mr. le 
Strange :— 
1520. [18 November] To Raff Ryches of Holme for 
ij Snypes ey ae 
1523. [18 January} To Robert Barker for iiij 
teles, a Wondcocke & viij. 
Snypes vj. 
* P. 470. Apparently it was not considered very eatable, yet we meet 
with it sometimes, as in the ‘‘ Records of Lydd ”’ (1541), in the ‘‘ Household 
Account of The Princess Elizabeth’’ (1551-2), and in The Naworth Accounts 
(begun in 1612). 
+ Common as is the Woodcock at the present day, there must have been 
a time when it was far more abundant in England, where, though always 
looked upon as proper food, its money-value in the sixteenth century was 
small. Taking the Northumberland household book as a fair standard, we 
find them only rated at a penny in 1512, and in the le Straunge papers two- 
pence is the highest price. 
+ They appear in other Household Accounts. Thorold Rogers, in his 
work on prices, before quoted, puts Snipe at fivepence or sixpence the dozen 
in 1555 (tc., IV.. p. 344), at eightpence in 1591, an] at no less than four 
shiltings in 1594 (V.. p. 369), but in this case there must have been something 
exceptional. 
