358 The Zoologist — September, 1866. 



from ' Macbeth,' which plainly show that Shakespeare was not un- 

 acquainted with this word as a hawking term : — 



" Ha, majesty ! how high thy glory towers." 



King John, Act ii. Scene 2. 

 And 



" A falcon towering in her piide of place." 



Macbeth, Act ii. Scene 4. 



The only word, then, which remains to be explained is "souse." 

 This also is a term borrowed from the language of falconry, and is 

 equivalent to " swoop." It would seem to be derived from the Ger- 

 man " sansen," which signifies to rush with a whistling sound like the 

 blustering of the wind, and this is certainly expressive of the " whirr" 

 made by the wings of a falcon when swooping on her prey. 



There is a good illustration of this passage in Drayton's ' Poly- 

 olbion,' Song xx., where a description of hawking at wild-fowl is 

 given. After the falconers have put up the fowl from the sedge, the 

 hawk, in the words of the author, having previously *' towered," 

 " gives it a souce." 



Beaumont and Fletcher also make use of this word as a hawking 

 phrase in '' The Chances,' iv. 1 ; and it occurs in Spenser's ' Faerie 

 Queene,' Book iv. C. 5, st. 30. 



To " souse" is still used in the meaning of plunging and throwing 

 provisions into salt and water, from the Latin " salsum," which sense 

 agrees with the precipitate plunge of a falcon on a water-fowl. (See 

 note to Staunton's Shakespeare, i. 469). 



Eagles, like many others of the hawk kind, are very fond of bathing, 

 and it has been found essential to supply them with baths when in 

 confinement, in order to keep them in good health. In Henry iV. 

 (Part I. Act iv. Scene 1) we read, 



Hotspur. " Where is bis son, 



The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales, 



And his comrades ? " &c. 

 Vebnon. " All furnish'd, all in arms. 



All plum'd like estridges, thai with the wind 



Bated, like eagles having lately bath'd." 



Bate is another hawking term, meaning iofltiUer, and occurs fre- 

 quently throughout the plays, as will be seen hereafter. 



" The world is grown so bad 

 That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch." 

 Richard III. Act i. Scene 3. 



