BIEDS. 321 



Falconer until the time for " casting off" the bird. When the 

 " quarry "* was seen, the hood was j^ulled off, the jesses drawn 

 from their rings, and the Falcon at the same time launched 

 into the air. It tried in all cases to soar above and pounco 

 upon the prcj, which it transfixed witli its powerful talons. 



Old records show the great value whioli was placed in former 

 times upon these birds, and the high prices at which they 

 were occasionally sold. In several places in the " Domesday 

 Book," ten pounds is made the optional ]iayment instead of 

 finding a Hawk. It is said that in one instance, about two 

 hundred yeiu's ago, so much as a thousand ]jounds were paid 

 for a pair. By the 34th Edward III., it was made felony 

 to steal a Hawk ; and to take its eggs, even on a person's 

 own grounds, was punishable with imprisonment ibr a year 

 and a day, besides a fine at the king's pleasure. Thus prized 

 and protected, and used only by the wealthy and the noble, 

 these birds became the appendage of their state as well as of 

 their pastime. 



References to Hawking, and its details, are of constant oc- 

 currence in our old ballads. t Shakspeare, who so invariably 

 "holds the mirror up to nature," hesitates not to introduce 

 the language of Falconry, in giving utterance to the perturbed 

 and distractino; meditations of Othello : — 

 -" If I do prove her haggard, 



Though tliat her jesses were my dear heart-strings, 

 I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind 

 To prey at fortune." 



The rapid flight of the Falcon is very remarkable. An 

 instance is recorded of one belonging to Henry IV., King of 

 France, which traversed the distance between Fontainebleau 

 and Malta, not less than 1,350 miles, in twenty-four hours. 

 In this case, supposing it to have been on the wing the whole 

 time, its rate of flight must have been nearly sixty miles an 

 hour ; but, as Falcons do not fly by night, it was probably not 

 more tlian sixteen or eighteen hours on the wing, and its rate 

 must, therefore, have been seventy or eighty miles an hour. 



* The bird flowii at by a Hawk was so named. 



t Vide the Gay Goshawk, and the Broomfieldhill, in Minstrelsy of 

 the Scottish Border. Sometimes the epithet, " gay Goshawk," is ap- 

 plied figuratively; thus, in the ballad of Fause Foodrage, in the same 

 collection : — 



" And ye maun learn, my gay Goshawk, 

 Right weel to breast a steed." 



