A LOST BRITISH BIRD. 155 



claim to have been a couirnon English bird at the time.* It is 

 perfectly clear that this special literature was based on a British 

 fauna, the constituents of which were familiar to the various 

 writers. Fortunately we have even stronger evidence than that 

 provided by the cookery books, dictionaries, and works on sport. 

 The account of the Egrets at Neville's famous feast is still under 

 a cloud, and it need not be used again. 



But at the Coronation Feast of Henry IV. at Westminster, 

 Oct. 13th, 1399 (Harl. MS. 279 and 4016) we read that "Cranys, 

 Byttures, and Egretez" were served during the second and third 

 courses. Thirty-six years later, at a feast on the occasion of 

 the induction of Stafford to the Bishopric of Bath and Wells 

 (Sept. 16th, 1425), "Egrets" were served, as were " Heyroun, 

 Crane, Curlewe, Pety Curlewe, Plovers, Snytys, Gullys, Tele, 

 Fesauntes," &c, and " Hyrchouns " [Hedgehogs] . 



Lapwings, by that name (they were spoken of at times as 

 "Lapewynk" or "Plouer"), are not of frequent occurrence in 

 these old bills of fare. They may have been recorded as 

 Plover, but the present writer has elsewhere (' Naturalist,' 1907, 

 pp. 310-11) given his reasons for believing that the Lapwing 

 has not always been a common bird in England, but has in- 

 creased with man. If it was, as Newton and others suggested, 

 that "Egret" was the old English name for Lapwing, how is it 

 that so few thoroughly reliable proofs of the mistake have reached 

 us to-day ? The modern error is based on the obvious mistakes 

 of one or two theological writers of the Middle Ages ; for all we 

 know to the contrary, the Lapwing was so rare to their minds 

 that they were unacquainted with its edible qualities, and so 

 made the "vpupa "f and " Egettides" mistakes referred to by 

 Newton. There is not the slightest room for doubt, after com- 

 paring the directions for killing, cooking, and carving the various 

 birds, that the " Egret," whatever it was, had much the same 

 shape, size, and structure as the Bittern and Heron, while the 

 Lapwing was much like a Plover or Partridge. The comparative 

 numbers served up provide us with no clue, for at a feast to 

 King Richard in 1387, on Sept. 23rd, although fifty Swans, two 



* John Eussell speaks of the Beaver, and how its tail had to be served 

 with green peas, but this interesting animal can be left for some future dis- 

 cussion, and the same remark can apply to the Stork. 



f Lewin (t. c.) translates " Lapwing" "vpicpa," but he made no mistake 

 about "Egret." 



