CONTENTS. xxi 



PAGE 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE BIRDS UNDER DOMESTICATION. 



Cock. " Cock-Crow." " Cock-shut-time." " Cock-a-Hoop." " Cock and 

 Pye." Cock-Fighting. Ancestry of the Domestic Cock. The Peacock. 

 Its Introduction into Europe, and Ancient Value. In Request for the 

 Table. The Turkey.- Date of Introduction into England. Shakespeare's 

 Anachronism. Pigeons. First used as Letter-Carriers. A Present of 

 Pigeons. Meaning of " Pigeon- Liver 'd." Pigeon-Post. Mode of 

 Feeding the Young. The Barbary Pigeon. The Rock- Dove. Doves 

 and Dovecotes. The "Doves of Venus." "The Dove of Paphos."-- 

 "As True as Turtle to her Mate:" "as Plantage to the Moon." 

 Mahomet's Dove. A Dish of Doves. The Goose. "Green-Geese," 

 and "Stubble-Geese." " Cackling home to Camelot." "The Wild- 

 Goose Chase." The Swan. "The Bird of Apollo." Song of the 

 Swan. Habits of the Swan. The Swan's Nest. As Soft as Swan's- 

 down. "Juno's Swans." Cygnets. ....... 167 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE GAME-BIRDS AND "QUARRY" FLOWN AT BY FALCONERS. 



Sporting in Shakespeare's Day. The Pheasant. Date of its Introduc- 

 tion into Britain. Ancient Value of Game. Game-Preserving. Game- 

 Laws. Partridge-Hawking. Anecdote of Charles I. Quails. Quail- 

 Fighting. The Lapwing. Feigning to be Wounded. Running as 

 soon as Hatched. The Heron, or Hernshaw. Heron-Hawking. Hawk 

 and Hernshaw. Heron at Table. The Woodcock. Springes for Wood- 

 cocks. How to Make a Springe. A Gin. "The Woodcock's Head." 

 The Snipe . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 



CHAPTER VIII. 



WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL. 



"A Flight of Fowl." Habit of Wounded Birds. " Duck-Hunting." 

 Swimming " like a Duck." Wild-fowling in Shakespeare's Day. 

 "The S talking-Horse." "The Caliver." " The Stale." Wild-Geese. 

 Sign of Hard Weather. The Barnacle Goose. Barnacles. Wild 

 Fowl. Divers and Grebes. The "Loon." The "Di-dapper." The 

 Cormorant. Its Voracity. Fishing with Cormorants. The King's Cor- 

 morants. Their "Keep" at Westminster. Fishing at Thetford. -The 

 Master of the Cormorants. Entries in State Papers. The Home of 

 the Cormorant. The Sea-side. Shakespeare's Sea-cliffs and " Sea- 

 mells." Gulls and Gull-Catchers 235 



