408 The Zoologist^October, 1866. 



The "pitch" is the extreme height to which a long-winged hawk 

 rises before the game is sprung. 



The hawking scene in Part II. of the same play has been already 

 given under the head of " Falcon." 



Hawking was sometimes called " birding." In the * Merry Wives 

 of Windsor ' (Act iii. Scene 3), Master Ford says, 



"I do invite you to-inonow nioining to my house, to breakfast; after, we'll 

 a-birding together. I have a fine hawk for the bush." 



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

 species was considered the best for a woody country, or, as Shake- 

 speare terms it, " the bush," and was thought too slow for the open 

 country. 



Again, in the same play (Act iii. Scene 5), Mrs. Ford says, 



" My husband goes this morning a-birding." 



But it would seem that " birding " did not always refer to hawking, 

 for later on in the same play we read as follows : — 



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

 Mbs. Ford. " There they always used to discharge their birding-pieces." 



Besides hawking and shooting, there is another way of taking birds, 

 termed " batfowling " or " batfolding," and that this method is of 

 some antiquity we may gather from the following line in the ' Tempest' 

 (Act ii. Scene 1), 



" He would so, and then go a-batfowling." 



The following instructions for batfowling, in Markham's ' Hunger's 

 Prevention,' &c., 1600, afford an accurate description of the way in 

 which this sport was pursued in former times : — 



*' For the manner of batfowling, it may be used either with nettes 

 or without nettes. 



" If you vse it without nettes (which indeede is the most common 

 of the two) you shall then proceede in this manner. First there shall 

 be one to carry the cresset of fire {as yf&s showed for the Lowbell), 

 then a certaine number, as two, three or foure (according to the great- 

 nesse of your company), and these shall have poales bound with dry 

 round ,wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or else bound with 

 pieces of linkes or hurdes dipt in pitch, rosen, grease, or any such 

 like matter that will blaze. Then another company shall be armed 



