love's mkinik. 11 



spiri*", — even the poor souls of birds, — as well as lettering 

 of their classes in books, — jon, with all care, should cher- 

 ish the old Saxon-English and Norman-French names of 

 birds, and ascertain them with the most affectionate re- 

 search — never despising even the rudest or most pi-ovincial 

 forms : all of them will, some day or other, give you cine 

 to historical points of interest. Take, for example, the 

 common English name of this low-flying falcon, the most 

 tameable and affectionate of his tribe, and therefore, I 

 suppose, fastest vanishing from field and wood, the buz- 

 zard. That name comes from the Latin " buteo," still 

 retained by the ornithologists ; but, in its original form, 

 valueless, to von. But when vou 2;et it comfortablv cor- 

 rupted into Froven9al " Busac," (whence gradually the 

 French busard, and our buzzard,) you get from it the 

 delightful compound " busacador," " adorer of buzzards " 

 — meaning, generally, a sporting person ; and then you 

 have Dante's Bertrand de Born, the first troubadour of 

 war, bearino- witness to vou how the love of mere hunting 

 and falconry was already, in his day, degrading the 

 military classes, and, so far from being a necessary 

 adjunct of the noble disposition of lover or soldier, was, 

 even to contempt, showing itself separate from both. 



" Le ric home, cassador, 

 M'enneion, e'l buzajcador. 

 Parian de rolada, d'austor, 

 Ne jamais d'arraas, ni d'amor." 



