[130.] A bird mentioned in Archæologia, xiii. 341. Hall. See [note, l. 422].
[131.] Shovelars feed most commonly upon the Sea-coast upon cockles and Shell-fish: being taken home, and dieted with new garbage and good meat, they are nothing inferior to fatted Galls. Muffett, p. 109. Hic populus, a schevelard (the anas clypeata of naturalists). Wright’s Voc., p. 253.
[132.] See [note 6 to line 539], above.
[133.] Is not this line superfluous? After 135 stanzas of 4 lines each, we here come to one of 5 lines. I suspect l. 544 is simply de trop. W. W. Skeat.
[134.] For the fish in the Poem mentioned by Yarrell, and for references to him, see the [list at the end] of this Boke of Nurture.
[135.] Recipes for “Grene Pesen” are in H. Ord. p. 426-7, p. 470; and Porre of Pesen, &c. p. 444.
[136.] Topsell in his Fourfooted Beasts, ed. Rowland, 1658, p. 36, says of Beavers, “There hath been taken of them whose tails have weighed four pound weight, and they are accounted a very delicate dish, for being dressed they eat like Barbles: they are used by the Lotharingians and Savoyans [says Bellonius] for meat allowed to be eaten on fish-dayes, although the body that beareth them be flesh and unclean for food. The manner of their dressing is, first roasting, and afterward seething in an open pot, that so the evill vapour may go away, and some in pottage made with Saffron; other with Ginger, and many with Brine; it is certain that the tail and forefeet taste very sweet, from whence came the Proverbe, That sweet is that fish, which is not fish at all.”
[137.] See the recipe for “Furmente with Purpeys,” H. Ord. p. 442.
[138.] I suppose this to be Seal. If it is Eel, see recipes for “Eles in Surre, Browet, Gravê, Brasyle,” in H. Ord. p. 467-8.
[139.] Wynkyn de Worde has ‘a salte purpos or sele turrentyne.’ If this is right, torrentille must apply to ȝele, and be a species of seal: if not, it must be allied to the Trout or Torrentyne, l. 835.