Of ‘mortrewes’ there were two kinds, ‘mortrewes de char’ and ‘mortrewes of fysshe.’ The first was a kind of soup in which chicken, fresh pork, bread crumbs, yolks of eggs, and saffron formed the chief ingredients. The second kind was a soup containing the roe (or milt) and liver of fish, bread, pepper, and ale. The ingredients were first brazed in a mortar, whence their name.” (Skeat, _Notes to Canterbury Tales_.) For a mixed company which contained—all together—craftsmen, retailers, merchants, sailors, ecclesiastics, squires, and knights, the kind of food here indicated is generous, at least. If, however, we study the list of creatures killed for one of the huge feasts in which the people took delight we arrive at a clearer understanding of the kind of food that could be bought by those who could afford it. Of animals we find wild bulls (!), oxen, sheep, calves, swine, kids, stags, bucks, and does. Of birds there are plover, quail, “rees” (query, ruffs and reeves?), peacock, mallard, swan, teal, crane, chicken, pigeon, bittern, heron, pheasant, partridge, woodcock, curlew, egrette. Of fish, pike, bream, porpoise, seal. Jellies, tarts, custards, and sugared spices sweetened the magnificent feast. In the account of another meal which took place on a fast day, we find the following:—Of fish: ling, cod, salmon, fresh and salted, white herring, red herring, sturgeon, eel, salt and fresh, whelk, pike, tench, carp, bream, lamprey, fresh and salt, conger, roach, seal, and porpoise. And in other menus we find entries of magpie, rook, jackdaw, thrush, starling, linnet, sparrow, heathcock, cormorant, sheldrake, wildfowl, lark. The crane plays a considerable part in mediæval feasting. On one occasion when ambassadors arrived from France, the City gave them, among other things, twelve cranes and twelve pheasants. At the enthronisation feast of the Archbishop of York (6 Ed. IV.) there were provided 204 cranes, 204 bitterns, and 400 heron-shaws. At a feast of Richard II. we find the following as the second course:— Pottage Pigges rosted Cranes rosted Fesaunts rosted Herne rosted Cranes lived in damp and marshy places, as did also egrettes, a kind of heron; the country was covered with such places; so that they were doubtless common. Since 204 cranes could have been trapped or caught or shot with bow or with sling, for a single feast, they must have been quite common. In a word, the people trapped, killed, and devoured all birds great and small. Hares and rabbits, of course, were served at table; and perhaps, no less daintily, the squirrel and hedgehog.