ZOOLOGY IN TIME OF SHAKESPEARE 245 



"If I do prove her haggard, 



Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings 

 I'ld whistle her off, and let her down the wind 



To prey at fortune " 



("Othello," III. iii. 260.) 



" haggard " means a grown-up bird caught wild 

 and untamed. It should be here mentioned that 

 hawkers fly their birds against the wind ; if 

 flown " down wind " they are apt to disappear 

 altogether. 



The " mew " (cf. " To-night she's mewed up/' 

 " Romeo and Juliet/' III. 4) was the " place 

 whether it be abroad or in the house, where you 

 set down your hawk during the time she raiseth 

 or reproduceth her feathers." The word is said 

 to be derived from the French mou, or moult. 

 At such a time great care must be taken of the 

 birds, who under quite unnatural conditions are 

 apt to pine and die. In Henry VIII. 's time the 

 mews at Charing Cross, which, according to 

 Stowe, had sheltered the royal hawks since 

 Richard II. 's reign, were converted into stables. 

 Horses replaced hawks, but the name mews 

 persisted. " Mewses must exist/' as Mrs. Billickin 

 tells us in " Edwin Drood." 



Another technical expression connected with 

 hawking is to " imp " ; 



