I902 Some Birds in Shakspear 215 



Jerkin ; the Falcon or Tassel Gentel ; the Laner and Laneret ; the 

 Bockerel and Bockeret ; the Saker and Saceret ; the Merlin and 

 Jack Merlin ; the Hobby and Jack. 



" And there is of the short-winged hawks — The Eagle or Iron ; 

 the Goshawk and Tarcel ; the Sparhawk and Musket. These are 

 reckoned Hawks of note and worth, but we have also of an inferior 

 rank — The Stanyel, the Ringtail ; the Raven, the Buzzard ; the 

 Forked Kite (and others). 



" Gentlemen, if I should enlarge my discourse to the observation 

 of the Eires, the Brancher, the Ramish Hawk, the Haggard, and 

 the two sorts of Lentners, and then treat of their several Ayries, 

 their Mewings, rare order of casting and the renovation of their 

 Feathers : their reclaiming, dyeting, and then to their rare stories of 

 practice, it would be very much pleasure to me." 



In dealing with Shakspear, it will be well to keep to this 

 order. Firstly, then, of the long -winged Hawks. I can 

 find no reference to the Gyr-falcon, which was very highly 

 prized, as will be seen from reference to Norwegian kings 

 and the like sending them as presents, unless indeed in that 

 rather pantomimic scene where Stephano and Trinculo and 

 Caliban approach Prospero's cell with malice aforethought, 

 and are diverted by the clothes that Ariel has laid before 

 them (" Tempest," iv. i). Stephano twitching a jerkin off 

 the clothes-line, says, " Mistress line, is not this my jerkin ? 

 Now is the jerkin under the line : now, jerkin, you are like 

 to lose your hair, and prove a bald jerkin." It seems to 

 me quite in keeping with Shakspear's love of punning, 

 that in the last two jerkins he should be referring to the 

 bird, for the Gyr-falcon was commonly called Jerkin in 

 England. 



According to the generally received ideas the Gyr-falcon 

 was reserved for kings, owing to its scarcity in all but north- 

 ern climes, and the difficulty then of getting at its nest and 

 extracting the young. I believe that at the present moment 

 it is the duty of Lord Derby to present our Sovereign with 

 two such birds at his Coronation. Failing that, perhaps two 

 Peregrines would do ; for they, in the estimation of some, 

 were attributes of royalty, as the Italian name Falco Reale 

 (also called Falco Gentile) shows. I should think in all 

 probability it was a Peregrine that our poet must have had 

 in his mind when in "Macbeth" (v. 2), speaking of the 



