ZOOLOGY IN TIME OF SHAKESPEARE 243 



despairing effort to get breath. In Harting's 

 " Ornithology of Shakespeare " there is an in- 

 teresting chapter on Hawking, or as Shakespeare 

 so often called it " Birding," with an account of 

 all the apparatus of falconry. Here we may 

 perhaps confine ourselves to explaining a few 

 technical terms. " Pitch "(cf. " How high a 

 pitch his resolution soars ") indicates the height 

 to which a hawk rises before he begins his swoop. 

 The " stanniel " to which Sir Toby Belch refers 

 when he exclaims " And with what wing the 

 stanniel checks at it " (" Twelfth Night," II. 5), 

 is the " standgate " or kestrel hawk, which hovers 

 over a mouse much as Malvolio checks at Maria's 

 letter dropped in his path. Another case where, 

 according to Harting, Shakespeare refers to a 

 particular species of hawk is when Mrs. Ford 

 addresses Falstaffs page : " How now, my eyas 

 musket ! '' Musket was the name used by 

 falconers for the male sparrow-hawk ; eyas indi- 

 cates a fledgling. " But there is, sir, an aiery of 

 children, little eyases, that cry out on the top 

 of the question, and are most tyrannically clapped 

 for't : these are now the fashion." Writing in 

 the days of " Peter Pan " and the " Blue Bird " 

 one feels that history does repeat itself. The 



