42 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
Fines Paid in Falcons.—This was a period when “ fines,” 
as they were called, were levied in kind. The word “ fine ” 
did not bear the meaning which it has now; in most cases 
it was not inflicted as a punishment, but as a tax, and these 
receipts formed a large part of the Crown revenue. In this 
connection it will be proper to cite what Thomas Madox 
has to say about the collecting of these fines in King Stephen’s 
reign (1097-1154), in his ‘“ History and Antiquities of the 
Exchequer” (1711). The law did not insist on their being 
collected in coin, which was only to be found in the coffers of 
the barons, and in which the lesser gentry could not pay. 
We find that the Crown payment was more often rendered 
in such kind as Palfreys, with gilt spurs and other appur- 
tenances, Destriers (war-horses), Chasours (hunting-horses), 
Leveriers (grey-hounds), Brachets (scent-hounds), Gupilerets * 
(fox-hounds), Hawks and Girfals (Gyr Falcons). Of this we 
have many instances. 
In the year 1139 one Outi, a gentleman of Lincolnshire, 
had to render to the Exchequer under the name of a fine, 
“ cne Hundred Norway Hawks and one Hundred Girfals: Four 
of the Hawks and Six of the Girfals were to be White ones ; 
if he could not get Four White Hawks, he was to give Four 
White Girfals instead of them.” t 
It is to be presumed the ‘“‘ White Gyrfals ”’ were what we 
now know as Greenland Falcons, and the “‘ White Hawks ” 
perhaps were what we call Iceland Falcons. 
Hither in the same reign, or in the reign of Henry II. 
(1153-1189), Ralf son of Drogo, and four other defaulters, 
were made to supply good hunting hawks, and the much 
prized Gyr Falcons in leu of marks of silver. Others were 
made to meet their liabilities by rendering up such home 
produce as bulls and mares. One Ernald de Aclent had to 
produce no fewer than a hundred and forty palfreys, and Robert 
de Ellestede six bald (i.e., smooth) Vulperets or fox-dogs. 
These instances are taken from Madox’s ‘“ History,” 
chapter IX. “Of the species wherein the ancient Crown 
* Mr. Harting reminds me that Golpileret is from the Norman Golpil 
or Goupil, a fox, see Kelham’s Norman Dictionary, “ Girfals’’? is a not 
infrequent contraction for Girfalcons. 
T Les Po 186. 
