SIXTEENTH CENTURY 127 
1523. [15 November] To Stephyn Percy for a 
Woodcocke, a grey Plou’, 
and a Snype ie 
1534. [19 December] To Carston of Thornham, for 
iiij Curlewes & forSnype iil. ix.4 
[20 January} Jhii v. Snyppys. 
[2a » |] Jhiiv. Snyppys of gist.* 
1541. [9 January] To John Syff for Stynte and 
Snype Vee a 
1548. [ll November] For a Curlewe, a Tele, & a 
Snyppe bo 
The names of shore-birds generally occur in the Accounts 
together, as if there had been a catch received from the nets. 
To take an instance, “a curlewe, dosyn Knotts, a dosyn 
Redschanks & Stynts, ij Teals”’: 7.e., twenty-seven birds are 
brought in, for which the fowler goes away with two shillings 
in his pocket. 
Either Avocets were rare, or, what is more likely, were 
not considered very good to eat, for they do not come into 
the le Straunge Accounts, or into any other house-books of 
English fare, unless indeed they are meant by the occasional 
entry of a “ White Plover.” My father was more inclined to 
identify the White Plover with the Grey Plover,t a solution 
not altogether satisfactory, for in autumn there is little or 
nothing white about this species. The name spelled “ whyte,” 
or “whit,” occurs four or five times, with those of other 
shore-birds. 
Of the Grey Plover, Mr. le Strange finds one mention :— 
1523. [November 15] ‘for a Woodcocke a grey plou' 
& aSnype... ij d.” 
The ffedowe or ffeddew. —The Godwit, presumably the Bar- 
tailed species, comes four times into the unpublished Accounts 
under its obsolete name of ‘‘ ffeddowe”’ or “‘ ffeddew,’’ a name 
latinised by William Turner in 1544 (‘De Avibus,” p. 44), 
and by Gesner in 1555, as Fedoa. The Godwit is a. bird 
which has had a good many designations, but this is the 
most curious of them, and unfortunately its meaning is lost. 
* Gist, or gyste, was a payment in lieu of rent. 
+ See Stevenson’s “ Birds of Norfolk,” IT., p. 103. 
t “Dictionary of Birds,” p. 248. 
