8
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
three birds and it was found that each differed in a number of
characters from the others. As a result of this examination it
is accepted that the bone from Colchester is that of a Domestic
Fowl (Callus). It is said to represent a bird of medium size.
The article is illustrated by four text-figures demonstrating the
resemblance of the Colchester sternum to that of a recent
specimen of the domesticated fowl and the differences of the
Colchester sternum when compared with the sterna of Lyrurus
tetrix L. (Black Game) and Phasianus (Pheasant). We have to
bridge a gap of about a thousand years before we find further
references to our subject, which brings us to the
11th CENTURY.
In 1869 W. Boyd Dawkins drew attention to the most
ancient record of the Pheasant in Great Britain, which is to be
found in the tract De inventione Sanctae Crucis nostrae in Monte
Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham, edited from manu-
scripts in the British Museum by W. Stubbs and published in
1861 in The Foundation of Waltham Abbey. The bill of fare
drawn up by Harold for the Canons' household of from six to
seven persons, A.D. 1059, and preserved in a manuscript of the
date of circa 1177, was as follows; (p. 16) "Erant autem tales
pitantiae unicuique canonico: a festo Sancti Michaelis usque
ad caput jejunii (Ash Wednesday) aut xii merulae, aut ii agauseae
(agace, a Magpie ?, Du Cange) aut ii perdices, aut unus phasianus
reliquis temporibus aut ancae (geese, Du Cange) aut gallinae."
(Translation: Title: Concerning the Discovery of our Holy
Cross at Montacute (Somerset) and its Installation at Waltham.
Bill of fare: For each canon there were the following allowances
from the feast of St. Michael to the beginning of Lent, either
12 thrushes, or two magpies, or two partridges, or one pheasant,
at other times either geese or fowls).
Boyd Dawkins argues that this shows that the Pheasant
became naturalised before the Norman invasion and as the
English and Danes were not the introducers of strange animals
in any well authenticated case, it offers fair presumptive evidence
that it was introduced by the Roman conquerors.
J. H. Gurney in his Early Annals of Ornithology, dealing
with this source of information, The Foundation of Waltham
Abbey, states that the following birds are mentioned; Crane,
Thrush, Partridge, Pheasant, Magpie, Goose, Fowl and Falcon.