Our viands

of parrots and pheasants, and the tongues of peacocks and nightingales, and that ^Esop, the tragic actor, entertained his guests with a dish of birds, each of which had been taught either to sing or to speak, we wonder that any singing birds should remain to be killed and eaten, especially when we remember that from the days of the Roman emperors to this present, an indiscriminate slaughter of all birds has been going on in Italy. Even now the traveller is regaled with all sorts of birds daintily dressed and served under the name of ortolans or becaficos, but the poulterers' shops reveal a mass of strange birds of every kind from the owl to the kingfisher and the wren, all awaiting the same fate at the hands of the Italian cook, who does not disdain even the blood of his victims, which is sold in the form of little cakes, whilst the livers, mixed with poultry trimmings, help in the manufacture of the most savoury and delicious of pies; whereas our extravagant cooks throw everything away excepting, perhaps, the liver and gizzard of domestic poultry, although they will sometimes condescend to use the necks and pinions for making gravy. Our domestic poultry now consists of fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea-fowls, but formerly at all feasts the place of honour was assigned to the peacock, which, dressed in its full plumage, was carried to the dining-hall by the chief lady of the company, to the sound of music, the rest of the ladies following in due order, and was set down by the bearer before the master of the house or his most honoured guest. The 'Book of Days' says, 'to prepare Argus for the table was a task entailing no little trouble. The skin was first carefully stripped off, with the plumage adhering ; the bird was then roasted ; when done GAME AND POULTRY 101 and partially cooled, it was sewed up again in its feathers, its beak gilt, and so sent to table. Sometimes the whole body was covered with leaf-gold, and a piece of cotton saturated with spirits placed in its beak and lighted before the carver commenced operations. This " food for lovers and meat for lords" was stuffed with spices and sweet herbs, basted with yolk of eggs, and served with plenty of gravy ; on great occasions as many as three fat wethers being braised to make enough for a single peacock.' The same book tells us that the bird when served up after a tournament, was usually placed in a pie, the head appearing at one end and the tail unfolded in all its glory at the other, and in this form was placed before the victorious knight. Over this peacock-pie the knights-errant swore, as Justice Shallow has it, ' by cock and pie,' to do all manner of chivalrous deeds.