2936 THE ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1872. 
page 235 representing some wild-fowl alighting on water, in which 
the swoop of the birds in settling, a difficult subject for the artist, 
is drawn in a way which is very true to life; and at page 270 there 
is a vignette of a blackheaded gull hovering over the waves on the 
search for food, which strikes us as very happily done. And while 
we are describing the embellishments of the book we must not 
forget to add that the frontispiece is an engraving of the Chandos 
portrait of the great poet; to which, with the able assistance of 
Mr. Wolf, Mr. Harting has ventured to make an addition. For 
the purpose of connecting Shakespeare with that branch of his 
almost universal information to which Mr. Harting has directed 
his attention in the pages we are reviewing, a hooded falcon is 
drawn sitting upon the poet’s wrist and held as a falconer would 
hold it, by the leash passed through the hand. We consider this 
a very suitable addition to the portrait, and one which is doubtless 
characteristic, for Shakespeare, whose writings abound with 
references to falconry, must often have carried hawk on glove. 
It is in explaining the technical language of an almost forgotten 
sport that Mr. Harting is singularly happy, and the manner in 
which he has done this makes his work of great assistance to all 
readers of Shakespeare’s plays. Mr. Harting well says that the 
meaning of many beautiful passages would be lost if one were 
ignorant of the metaphors contained in them, which are taken from 
the science of the falconer. He gives as an example the words in 
which Othello expresses his fears about the fidelity of Desde- 
mona :— 
“Tf I do prove her haggard, 
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, 
I’d whistle her off, and let her down the wind 
To prey at fortune.” 
In these lines all the words in italics are taken from falconry, 
and no one would understand their sense who had not some know- 
ledge of the terms employed. But if these are familiar, the beauty 
and pathos of Othello’s exclamation become apparent. A 
“haggard” was a wild-caught hawk, difficult and almost impossible 
to train. The “jesses” were the light leather straps passed round 
the legs of the hawk, by which she was attached to the leash. To 
“whistle off” was a phrase which denoted the dismissal of a falcon 
which was turned adrift as no longer worth the keeping. To “let 
down the wind” meant to turn her off anyhow, without regard to 
