26 PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIABIES. 



Writing to The Ibis for 1869 (page 358)^ that gentleman says: 

 " It may interest your readers to know that the most ancient 

 record of the occurrence of the pheasant in Great Britain is 

 to be found in tha tract ' De inventione Sane-tee Crucis nostrse 

 in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham,' 

 edited from manuscripts in the Biitish Museum by Professor 

 Stubbs, and published in 1861. *rhe bill of fare drawn up 

 by Harold for the Canons' households of from six to seven 

 persons^ A.D. 1050, and preserved in a manuscript of the 

 date of circa 1177, was as follows (p. 16) : 



Erant autem tales pitantise unicuique canonico : a f esto Saneti Miohaelis 

 usque ad caput jejunii [Ash Wednesday] aut xii merulse, aut ii aganseae 

 [Aga^e, a magpie (P), Ducange], aut ii perdices, aut unus phasiauus, 

 reliquis temporibus aut ancse [Geese, Bucange] aut gallinae. 



" Now the point of this passage is that it shows that 

 Phasianus colchicus had become naturalised in England before 

 the Norman invasion; and as the English and Danes were not 

 the introducers of strange animals in any well authenticated 

 case, it ofFers fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced 

 by the Roman conqnerors, who naturalised the fallow deer in 

 Britain." 



" The eating of magpies at Waltham, though singular, 

 was not as remarkable as the eating of horse by the monks 

 of St. Galle in the time of Charles the Great and the return- 

 ing thanks to God for it : 



Sit f eralis equi caro dulcis sub cruce Christi ! 



The bird was not so unclean as the horse — the emblem of 

 paganism — was unholy." 



But the conclusion that the pheasant was introduced into 

 England before the Norman Conquest is not regarded as 

 proved by those authorities who consider the tract " De 

 mventione Crucis" as a miraole-mongering work that no 

 cautious antiquary would accept as conclusive evidence. 



In Dugdale's "Monasticoa Anglicanum" is a reference 



