94, PHASIANIDÆ.
handsome specif, P. chrysomelas, with a small white collar
and rich golden neck and breast-feathers tipped with emëfald
green; but although nearer in point of .distance to Pr'^col-
chicus,neither of the aboyé so closely resemble our Pheasant
as doés" P. shawl, which is: now found only oh the..eastern
side of .a. lofty range whose passes attain an altitude of
14,000 feet. This distribution is exceedingly puzzling, and
can. only be. cleared ' up by more exact information. The
óthër species of the group are' the collarless P. decollates of
Moupin, where it is the only.species, but, which mixes on its
eastern frontier with the collared P. torquatus of Southern
China ; the two collarless species, P: elègans, of the. west of
Séchuen and Yunnan, and P. versicolor oî Japan ; and, the
collared P. formosanus, of the island of Formosa? Excepting
for the introduction of P. torquatusand P^ve^sio&ipr/xaio
our covers, these species have no. immediate bearing upon
the question. |
Whatever may have. been .the date, oi the introduction
of the Pheasant into England, has undoubtedly, maintained
itself in' this country in a wild.' state'ffojr-a- period
sufficient to. entitle it to be considered a British bird. , Upon
this point .Professor Boyd Dawkins has contributed.the
following
“ It may interest 'your readers .&'.know that ..the ^most.
ancient record of -the occurrence of .,$Jge Pheasant in/Great
Britain is to be found in the tract ‘ De inventione Banctæ
Crucis nostrse'in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem "apud
Waltham,’ edited from manuscripts in the,British Museum
by Professor .Stubbs, and published' in 1861. The bill of
fare drawn up by-Harold for the Canon’s household pf from
six to seven persons, a .d . 1059, and preserved in a manuscript
of j the date of circa 1177, was as-follows'
“ f Erarit autem tales'pitantiæ unicuique cano'nico : afesto
Sancti Michaelis usque ad caput jej.unii 4^sh. Wednesday?].
aut xii. merulæ, aut ji. agause.se [Agaëêii a magpie :
JDucangc] aut ,ii. perdices, aut unps1 phasianus^ reliquis
temporibus aut ancæ [Geers': JDucange] aut gallinæ.’
“ Now the point of this:, passage/is that' it/shews- that
PHEASANT. 95
Phasianus colchicus had become naturalized in England
before the Norman invasion; and as the English and Danes
were not the introducers of strange animals l in any welh
authenticated case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it
was introduced" by the Roman conquérors, who naturalized
the Fallow' Deer, in Britain.”*
It appears byDugdale’s ‘ Monasticon Anglicanum ’ that
at the commencement of the reign of Henry I ^ a.d.'1100)
license was. given to the Abbot of Amesbury to kill hares
and Pheasants; and, according to Echard’s pistory'of England,
in a .d . 1299, during the reign of Edward I . the price
of a Pheasant was fourpencè ; the value of a Mallard being
threë-halfpence, a’Flover-one penny, and a couple of Woodcocks
thrfee-halfpence.*: To these earlymotices may be added
one contributed by Saturday Review critic' of the 1st
Edition: of Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier’s admirable treatise /on
1 Pheasants,’f to .wit'that Thomas a B'eekét,'on the day. óf
his martyrdom (Decembers 29, 1179),-dined on a Pheasant
and enjoyed;:it; a s it .would'seem from the remairk-bf one óf
his monks that “ he dined more heartily and cheerfully that
day than usual.”
Mr. Parting,, in bis I Ornithology of Shakspeare,’" gives
numerous interesting. details and quotations, shewing thé
esteem in which this bird was held for the table in somewhat
more recent times. I t . appears, by Leland’s account of’ihe
feast atvthe erithrónization of George Nevill, Archbishop of
Aork in the reign of Edward "IY., that two hundred
“ fessauntes” were served with other meats; and in the
J Household Book %Mhe L’Estfangës of Hunstanton, from
a .d . 1519 to a.»>1578; there are such entries ^in--the reign
of Henry "VIII. as “ vj . fescmds and y. ptrychys'kyllyed wt
the hauks.” “ Item, to Mr. Ashley’s servant for brynging
of a; Fesant Oecfe.'and four Woodcocks on, thev 18th; day >bf
October, in reward, four^pénce.” “ Item,‘avFesant -kylled
with-the -Goshawke.” Similar-allusions are: made in the
* Ibis,*Ï 869, i-35§r - * \ ‘V.JT,
+ Seep. 18% th e '2nd Edition which the Editorf is under great
obligations.