THE HERNSHAW. 223 



but penalties were incurred for taking the eggs,* and no 

 one was permitted to shoot within 600 paces of a heronry, 

 under a penalty of ^20 (7 Jac. I. c. 27). 



We should scarcely have thought it possible to find a 

 man who would not know a hawk from a heron when he 

 saw it, and Hamlet evidently considered that such an one 

 would not be in his right mind, for he says of himself : — 



" I am but mad north-north-west : when the wind is 

 southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw!'- — Hamlet, 

 Act ii. Sc. 2. 



He referred here to an old proverbial saying, originally 

 "he does not know a hawk from a hernshaw," that is, a 

 heron ; but the word was thus corrupted before Shake- 

 speare's day. (See ante, p. 75.) 



John Shaw (M.A., of Cambridge), who published a 

 curious book in 1635, entitled "Speculum Mundi," tells us 

 therein that " the heron or hernsaw is a large fowle that 

 liveth about waters," and that " hath a marvellous hatred 

 to the hawk, which hatred is duly returned. When they 

 fight above in the air, they labour both especially for this 

 one thing — that one may ascend and be above the other. 

 Now, if the hawk getteth the upper place, he overthroweth 

 and vanquisheth the heron with a marvellous earnest 

 flight." This old passage contrasts quaintly with the 

 animated description of heron-hawking in Freeman and 



* The fine was M. for every egg. Sec 3 & 4 Ed. VI. c. 7, and 25 Hen. VIII. 

 c. 11. 



