72 GOING A-BIRDING. 



Hawking was sometimes called "birding." In the Merry 

 Wives of Windsor (Act iii. Sc. 3), Master Page says, 



" I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to 

 breakfast ; after, we '11 a-birding together ; I have a fine 

 hawk for the bush." 



This was probably a goshawk, for, being a short-winged 

 hawk and of slower flight, this species was considered the 

 best for a woody district, or, as Shakespeare terms it, " the 

 bush." 



In the same play (Act iii. Sc. 5) Dame Quickly, re- 

 ferring to Mistress Ford, says, " Her husband goes this 

 morning a-birding;" and Mistress Ford, herself, says (Act 

 iv. Sc. 2), " He 's a-birding, sweet Sir John." 



But it seems that birding was not always synonymous 

 with hawking, for, later on in the last-mentioned scene, 

 we read as follows : 



" Falstaff. What shall I do ? I '11 creep up into the 

 chimney. 



Mrs. Ford. There they always use to discharge their 

 b ir ding-pieces. 



The word "hawk," as in the case of the eagle, is 

 almost invariably employed by Shakespeare in its generic 

 sense : 



" Dost thou love hawking ? thou hast hawks will soar 

 Above the morning lark." 



Taming of tJic Shrew, Induction, Sc. 2". 



