218 THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
Order GALLINAE.
Family PHASIANIDAE.
Pheasant : Phasianus colchicus.
An abundant resident wherever it is sufficiently preserved. It
was probably originally naturalized in England by the Romans, as
the earliest known record of it is in the year 1059 (Ibis, 1869,
p. 358, and 37. iii. 95). It is an interesting fact that the first
record of it in Britain is in the county of Essex.
This record, according to Prof. Boyd Dawkins, is to be found in the tract,
" De inventione Sancta Crucis nostrae in Monte Acuto et deductione ejusdem
apud Waltham," edited from MSS. in the British Museum, by Prof. Stubbs in
1861. The bill of fare drawn up by Harold, for the canon's household of from
six to seven persons, A.D. 1059, and preserved in a MS. of the date of about
A.D. 1177, was to be :—
"Erant autem tales pitantiae unicuique canonico ; a festo Sancti Michaelis
usque ad caput jejunii [Ash Wednesday], aut xii. merulae, aut ii. agauscae agace :
[a magpie (?) Ducange], aut ii. perdrices, aut unus phasianus reliquis temporibus
aut ancae [Geese : Ducange] aut gallinae."
This passage affords fair presumptive evidence that the bird was introduced
before the Norman Conquest, and inasmuch as the English and Danes are not
known to have introduced any animals, the probability is that the Pheasant was
introduced by the Romans.
Red-legged Partridge : Caccabis rufa. Locally," French
Partridge," " Frenchman."
An abundant resident, though originally introduced. Round
Chelmsford it is now at least as abundant as the Common Partridge.
Mr. J. Yelloly Watson writes (Tendring Hundred in the Olden Time, iii. ed.,
p. 234) :—
"On the 8th June, 1763, he [William Henry de Nassau, fourth Earl of
Rochford] became Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of Spain ; and on
the 1st July, Ambassador to the Court of France. When he returned, he is said
to have brought with him French or Red-legged Partridges ; and one of the
early breed, shot at St. Osyth nearly a century ago, stuffed, and with a white
Pheasant in a case, is before us as we write. Soon after this, he introduced the
poplar trees from Lombardy, and two of the first planted in England are now to
be seen in the Park [at St. Osyth Priory]."
Daniel, shooting near Colchester in 1777 (6. ii. 410), found a covey of fourteen
" Red-legs," which were flushed with difficulty, but after half an hour's exertion
one was got up, and " immediately perched on the hedge, and was shot in that
situation without its being known what bird it was." Two and a half brace