250 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspeare s Time. 
alike in feeding, habits, and flight. But the lanner stood alone in its-, 
peculiarities : rather inferior to the peregrine in swiftness and boldness, 
it was noted for docility and perseverance; it hung long upon wing 
without fatigue, remembered the lessons taught faithfully, would 
make repeated flights in the same morning, and was far less nice in its 
food than the other; it was the hawk recommended to young and 
eager falconers, as being the most difficult to spoil in flight or injure in 
feeding.” ( Fauna, of Norfolk , 1845, p. 26.) 
Hobby. 
Merlin. 
The Hobby was very common. It was small but 
beautifully shaped, docile, and easily trained. 
It was flown at quails, snipe, and other 
small birds, but chiefly at skylarks. It was also em¬ 
ployed in taking larks alive, by the method called daring • 
them. If the hobby were thrown up in a field, the larks 
rose and thus betrayed their nests. According to Lyly,. 
it could “ o’ermount the lark.” He writes, “ Ho bird can 
looke against the sunne but those that be bredde of the 
eagle, neither any hawks soare so high as the broode of 
the hobby.” 
The “pretie Marlion,” or Merlin, was the favourite 
falcon of the ladies, and of beginners in the 
art of hawking. One of the smallest, it was 
at the same time one of the handsomest species, and 
readily became attached to its owner. It was flown at 
quails, snipe, and lark, and in its mode of flight re¬ 
sembled the goshawk, not swooping, but closely following 
its prey in the rear, darting along near the surface of the 
ground with great rapidity. 
The Kestrel, called also Standgale, Stannel, and 
Windhover, is not often mentioned. It was 
the hawk allotted to persons of inferior rank. 
The name is derived by some from coystril, a knave or 
peasant, a word which was spelt in a variety of ways. 
Drayton informs us that— 
“ The soaring kite there scantled his large wings. 
And to the ark the hovering castril brings.” 
(Noah’s Floodf 
Kestrel. 
