THE HERNSHAW. 223 



but penalties were incurred for taking the eggs,* and no 

 one was permitted to shoot within 600 paces of a heronry, 

 under a penalty of 20 (7 Jac. I. c. 27). 



We should scarcely have thought it possible to find a 

 man who would not know a hawk from a heron when he 

 saw it, and Hamlet evidently considered that such an one 

 would not be in his right mind, for he says of himself: 



" I am but mad north-north-west : when the wind is 

 southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaivT Hamlet, 

 Act ii. Sc. 2. 



He referred here to an old proverbial saying, originally 

 "he does not know a hawk from a hernshaw," that is, a 

 heron ; but the word was thus corrupted before Shake- 

 speare's day. (See ante, p. 75.) 



John Sh*aw (M.A., of Cambridge), who published a 

 curious book in 1635, entitled "Speculum Mundi," tells us 

 therein that " the heron or hernsaw is a large fowle that 

 liveth about waters," and that " hath a marvellous hatred 

 to the hawk, which hatred is duly returned. When they 

 fight above in the air, they labour both especially for this 

 one thing that one may ascend and be above the other. 

 Now, if the hawk getteth the upper place, he overthroweth 

 and vanquisheth the heron with a marvellous earnest 

 flight." This old passage contrasts quaintly with the 

 animated description of heron-hawking in Freeman and 



* The fine was 8</. for every egg. See 3 & 4 Ed. VI. c. 7, and 25 Hen. VIII. 

 c. n. 



