proved by the fact that in 1581, "La Nouvelle Coutume du
Bourbonnois" only reckons the value of these beautiful birds at two sous
and a half, or about three francs of present currency.

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--State Banquet.--Serving the Peacock.--Fac-simile
of a Woodcut in an edition of Virgil, folio, published at Lyons in 1517.]

Game.--Our forefathers included among the birds which now constitute
feathered game the heron, the crane, the crow, the swan, the stork, the
cormorant, and the bittern. These supplied the best tables, especially the
first three, which were looked upon as exquisite food, fit even for
royalty, and were reckoned as thorough French delicacies. There were at
that time heronries, as at a later period there were pheasantries. People
also ate birds of prey, and only rejected those which fed on carrion.

Swans, which were much appreciated, were very common on all the principal
rivers of France, especially in the north; a small island below Paris had
taken its name from these birds, and has maintained it ever since. It was
proverbially said that the Charente was bordered with swans, and for this
same reason Valenciennes was called _Val des Cygnes_, or the Swan Valley.

Some authors make it appear that for a long time young game was avoided
owing to the little nourishment it contained and its indigestibility, and
assert that it was only when some French ambassadors returned from Venice
that the French learnt that young partridges and leverets were exquisite,
and quite fit to appear at the most sumptuous banquets. The "Menagier"
gives not only various receipts for cooking them, but also for dressing
chickens, when game was out of season, so as to make them taste like young
partridges.

There was a time when they fattened pheasants as they did capons; it was a
secret, says Liebault, only known to the poultry dealers; but although
they were much appreciated, the pullet was more so, and realised as much
as two crowns each (this does not mean the gold crown, but a current coin
worth three livres). Plovers, which sometimes came from Beauce in
cart-loads, were much relished; they were roasted without being drawn, as
also were turtle-doves and larks; "for," says an ancient author, "larks
only eat small pebbles and sand, doves grains of juniper and scented
herbs, and plovers feed on air." At a later period the same honour was
conferred on woodcocks.

Thrushes, starlings, blackbirds, quail, and partridges w