1902 Some Birds in Shak spear 137 



When the poet wants to be more contemptuous, he calls 

 the Kite a Puttock, a word which most think is a contrac- 

 tion for Poult hawk, though some consider it a corruption 

 of Buteo, so much so indeed that Bewicke gives Puttock as 

 the second name of the Buzzard. 



I must pause for a moment to deal with a misconception 

 which confuses Puttock with the Shakspearian Paddock, the 

 Old English for toad. The confusion comes from Scotland, 

 for north of the Tweed they call a toad a Puddock, and 

 often pronounce it Puttock. This is a mistake ; a toad is 

 Paddock, as the Norwegian Padde confirms. 



I return to this degenerate form of kite. The most strik- 

 ing quotation is " Henr}- VI,'" Part II. iii. 2. Beaufort and 

 Suffolk are expressing their regret at Gloucester's death, in 

 which those round them believe them implicated. Warwick 



says — 



" Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest 

 But may imagine how the bird was dead 

 Although the kite soar with unblooded beak." 



The other allusion which the poet makes to the Kite in its 

 wild state refers to the domestic economy of all the hawk 

 tribe, in the way in which they emit the indigestible refuse of 

 what they devour ("Macbeth," iii. 4). Macbeth has had 

 Banquo murdered, and the ghost appears and sits in Mac- 

 beth's seat. At the sight of it Macbeth raves and thus 

 addresses the apparition — 



'■ If thou canst nod, speak too. 

 If charnel-houses and our graves must send 

 Those that we bur\' back, our monuments 

 Shall be the maws of kites.'"' 



Tennyson alludes to it in " Aylmer's Field,"' where he 

 wishes to draw the mind of his reader to how all the haughty 

 schemes of purse-proud vanity have failed, and nature has 

 reasserted its sway — 



" Where the two contri\'ed their daughter's good. 

 Lies the hawk's cast, the mole has made its run." 



This finishes the allusions to Hawks as ferce. natures, and 

 one passes naturally to such birds used in falconry, for the 

 kite was not only used for hawking but at times acted as 

 quarry. 



{To be continued^ 



