72 
GOING A-BIRDING. 
Hawking was sometimes called “birding.” In the Merry 
Wives of Windsor (Act iii. Sc. 3), Master Page says,— 
“ I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to 
breakfast ; after, we ’ll a-birding together ; I have a fine 
hawk for the bush.” 
This was probably a goshawk, for, being a short-winged 
hawk and of slower flight, this species was considered the 
best for a woody district, or, as Shakespeare terms it, “ the 
bush.” 
In the same play (Act iii. Sc. 5) Dame Quickly, re¬ 
ferring to Mistress Ford, says,—“ Her husband goes this 
morning a-birding and Mistress Ford, herself, says (Act 
iv. Sc. 2),—“ He’s a-birding , sweet Sir John.” 
But it seems that birding was not always synonymous 
with hawking, for, later on in the last-mentioned scene, 
we read as follows :— 
“ Falslajf. What shall I do ? I ’ll creep up into the 
chimney. 
Mrs. Ford. There they always use to discharge their 
birding-pieces. 
The word “hawk,” as in the case of the eagle, is 
almost invariably employed by Shakespeare in its generic 
sense :— 
“ Dost thou love hawking ? thou hast hawks will soar 
Above the morning lark.” 
Taming of the Shrezv, Induction, Sc. 2. 
