152 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



was A rdea alba or A . garzetta. But the mischief was done. Selby 

 agreed with Fleming, and, later, Yarrell agreed with both these 

 writers, like them without making any independent enquiry, and 

 in his well-known work he dismisses the subject as follows : — 



" The oft-quoted passage from Pennant ... is probably 

 founded on error. As suggested by Fleming, and followed by 

 Selby, the birds were no doubt Lapwings." Yarrell's opinion, 

 although it was founded on Fleming's hasty and dogmatic 

 passage, is shared by every ornithologist of the present day ; 

 a footnote on p. 505 of Newton's ' Dictionary of Birds ' summed 

 up one other aspect of the matter, but here the errors of a few 

 are used to condemn the writings of a correct many. 



From works other than those of professed naturalists I have 

 succeeded in gathering a great deal of evidence showing that 

 about the time of Neville's feast the Egret was both common 

 and well known in England. Only a portion of the evidence can 

 be given here. In one of the MSS. of the Harleian Library 

 (Douce MS. 55 (date 1430), cf. Austin, Eng. Text Soc. p. 115) 

 will be found directions for killing, cooking, and carving the 

 Egret : " Egrett Bost. Breke an egrettes nekke, or cut the rofe 

 of hys mouthe, as of a crane . . . folde his legs as a bitore 

 [Bittern] ... & rost hym." A Crane was killed by cutting the 

 roof of the mouth and " lete him blede to deth." Another 

 Harleian MS. (4016, date 1450) refers to this method of slaughter, 

 which was used on Curlews, Swans, Herons, and Bitterns : 

 " Kutte in the rove of the mouthe toward the brayne enlonge." 

 John Bussell, in his 'Boke of Nurture ' (written 1460-70, printed 

 1867, E. E. T. Soc), mentions the Egret several times. He 

 tells how in " Wodcok, Bitoure, Egret, Snyte, Curlew, and 

 Heyronsew " the beaks must be broken by the carver, thus 

 suggesting that all were long and breakable. But he does not 

 mention this operation in speaking immediately afterwards of 

 the " Feysaunt, Partriche, Plouer, and Lapewynk." And, again 

 (line 539), the Egret is classed for another reason with Heyron- 

 sewe and Crane, while a few lines below he speaks of " Bustard, 

 Betowre, Shovelar [Spoonbill], Wodcok, and Lapewynk." Newton 

 cannot have been aware of this and several other works when he 

 stated that the Egret of the Middle Ages was nothing but the 

 Lapwing. 



