38 The Pheasant in History. 



rest took finally to the woods at the commencement of the 

 breeding season. This particular kind of timidity, which 

 does not appear in our domestic fowls, seems to me to oppose 

 the only, though at the same time an unsurmountable, bar 

 to our final triumph over the pheasant. After attentive 

 observation, I can perceive nothing else in the habits of the 

 bird to serve as a clue by which we may be enabled to trace 

 the cause of failure in the many attempts which have been 

 made to invite it to breed in our yards, and retire to rest 

 with the barndoor fowl and turkey." 



With regard to the date of the introduction of the 

 pheasant into England, there are no records which afford any 

 clue to the precise date when it was first brought to this 

 country ; and though probably its acclimatisation does not 

 go further back than the Norman Conquest, yet it is possible 

 that our Eoman invaders may have imported it at a much 

 earlier period, with other imperial luxuries. 



Lord Lilford, in his " Notes on the Birds of Northampton- 

 shire," writes : " There appears to be no reason to doubt that 

 the pheasant was introduced into England by the Eomans, 

 and the bird has now become so spread over most parts of 

 Europe that it is almost impossible to say where it is really 

 indigenous." 



This suggestion is possibly near the truth, for the pheasant 

 has been shown by Prof. Boyd Dawkins to have been 

 naturaUsed in this country upwards of eight hundred years. 

 Writing in The Ibis for 1869 (page 858), he observes : " 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 the tract ' De inventione Sanctse Crucis nostras 

 in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham,' 

 edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor 

 Stubbs, and pubhshed in 1861. The bill of fare drawn up 

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

 persons, a.d. 1059, and preserved in a manuscript of the 

 date circa 1177, was as follows : 



