INTBODUCTION INTO IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 31 



edited by' Beriah. Bobfield for th6 Eoxburgh: Oliib, -wlierein 

 (at p. 399) under date of April, 1467, at Ipswich.', tHere is 

 the entry: "Item xii. fesawntes pryse xiig." He adds that 

 there is apparently no earlier mention of the pheasants in 

 Norfolk than some references in the accounts of the 

 L'Estranges at Hunstanton in 1519, and the entry above 

 quoted is the earliest for Suffolk. 



In Essex, the pheasant is mentioned in a bill of fare, 

 A.D. 1059 (as already noticed) and this is apparently the 

 earliest allusion to the bird to be found in any part of 

 England. 



Mr. Harting further informs me that he has seen an 

 ancient Psalter belonging to Lord Aldenham, in which there 

 is a very fair coloured portrait of a cock pheasant, date 

 A.D. 1260. 



In Ireland, writes Mr. W . Thompson, in his natural history 

 of that country, " The period of its introduction is unknown 

 to me, but in the year 1589 it was remarked to be common." 

 Fynes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 to 1603, 

 observes that there are " such plenty of pheasants as I have 

 known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much more 

 with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce.'' 



In Scotland the pheasant does not appear to have been 

 preserved at a very early period. Mr. R. Gray, in his work 

 on " The Birds of the West of Scotland," says : " The first 

 mention of the pheasant in old Scotch Acts is in one dated 

 8th June, 1594j in which year a keen sportsman occupied the 

 Scottish- throne." He might have been called "James the 

 protector" of all kinds of game, as in the aforesaid year he 

 " ordained that quhatsnmever person or persoues at ony time 

 hereafter sail happen to slay deir, harts, pheasants, f culls, 

 partricks, or other wyld foule quhatsumever, ather with gun, 

 croce bow, dogges, halks, or girnes, or be uther ingine 

 quhatsumever, or that beis found schutting with ony gun 

 therein," &c., &c., shall pay the usual " hundreth punds," &c. 



The distribution of the pheasant over Great Britain and 



