2i8 T lie Field Naturalist's Quarterly Aug. 



other way. If he found the bird hopelessly intractable he 

 let it down the wind, and so was rid of it ; for the future 

 she shifted for herself — " preyed at fortune." 



A word or two on the training of hawks, which supplies 

 Shakspear with so many similes that I will only take 

 sufficient to describe the process. The bird, whether taken 

 out of the nest or captured when full grown, was immedi- 

 ately hooded or hoodwinked, so Juliet says (Act iii. 2) — 



" Come civil night, 

 Hood my unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks 

 With thy black mantle." 



The hawk was frequently fed, and when fed the trainer 

 whistled to it that it might associate the sound with the 

 idea of feeding. This is the falconer's call, though at times 

 both in Italian and English it is used as " lure." The latter 

 was properly a piece of leather covered with feathers upon 

 which the hawk's food was placed, in order that later, 

 when it was being flown and missed its bird, it might come 

 back on seeing the lure, in hopes of being fed, as alluded to 

 above in Petruchio's speech. When fairly tame it was 

 carried on the gloved hand. "Straps of leather" (the 

 jesses mentioned in "Othello") "were put about its legs 

 for the purpose of holding it, and bells were attached, so 

 small as not to impede its flight." These Shakspear 

 mentions in "As You Like It," iii. 3 — 



"As a falcon her bells, so man hath his desires." 



And again, referring to the terror struck into other birds on 

 hearing the bells of a hawk (" 3 Henry VL," 2) — 



" Neither the King nor he that loves him best 

 Dare stir a wing if Warwick shakes his bells." 



After this digression I return to two inferior birds in 

 Walton's list, which find mention in Shakspear (" Merry 

 Wives of Windsor," ii. 3). Falstaff's page, a shrewd little 

 nipper, is called an "eyas musket," which is the equivalent 

 of a young sparrow-hawk. 



The Stanyel, too, is mentioned in the passage where 



