BRITISH BIRDS. 59 



" On 6 March, 1258, Giles de Erdington is deputed to try a suit of novel 

 disseizen, which Philip de Roulle (Rowley) and his wife had against John de 

 Chastell, about a tenement in Bruges. Pat. 42 Hen. III. This suit seems 

 to have led to a final concord at Westminster, whereby on July 8, 1259, 

 Philip de Roweley and Isabella his wife, conceded, as of their own gift, to 

 John de Chastel de Brugg and Alice his wife, 19 acres in Nortleg (Nordley), 

 Dunfowe, Brugg, and Aldebyre (Oldbury), whereof had been a plea of war- 

 ranty. To hold to John and Alice and their heirs, of Philip and Isabella 

 and the heirs of Isabella at ^'^ rent, and services due to the chief Lords. 

 John gave for this a sore Sparrow hawk. Pedes finium, 43 Hen. III. Salop." 



Again, p. 82. " A sore hawk was one in its first plumage (from the 

 French sor or saur, English sorrel, i. e. reddish brown). A stag in its 

 fourth year was also called sore — a similar allusion to its colour." 



In the letter of John Paston to Sir John Paston, Sept. 21, 1472, we have :— 

 " I pray God send you all your desires and me my mewed goss hawk in haste, 

 or, rather than fail, a soar hawk; there is a grocer dwelling right over 

 against the Well with two Buckets, a little from St. Helens Church, hath 

 ever hawks to sell." (Larwood & Hotten's ' Sign-boards,' p. 374.) 



Mr. R. B. Sharpe remarks, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 418:— " The general character 

 of the species of Accipiter is to have a striped plumage when young and a 

 barred dress when old. But it is not generally known that this is eifected 

 by a gradual change in the markings of the feather, and not by an actual moult. 

 .... We can tell the age of a young Sparrow-Hawk by the extent of the 

 rufous edgings to the feathers of the upper surface : if these are very broad and 

 distinct, the bird is quite young ; for they gradually wear off as it progresses 

 in age. On the first appearance of the feathers from the downy covering of 

 the nestling, the markings on the chest are longitudinal drops of a pale rufous - 



brown colour Hence, when the bars are perfectly developed, a shade 



of darker brown overspreads the upper margin, gradually eclipsing the rufous- 

 brown shade, which remains the evidence of the previous plumage." Mr. 

 John Hancock, in his ' Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and 



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