\ 6 \ 
BIRDING-PIECES. 
“ quarrels,” from their pyramidal form), and also stones or 
leaden balls. 
Apropos of “ bolts,” who does not remember Oberon’s 
poetical story of the wild pansy ( Viola tricolor ) marked 
by Cupid’s “ bolt ?” 
V 
“Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 
It fell upon a little western flower,— 
Before, milk white, now purple with love’s wound,— 
And maidens call it ‘ Love-in-idleness.’ ” 
Midsummer Night's Dream , Act ii. Sc. i. 
The “ birding-pieces ” which Mrs. Ford tells Falstaff are 
always “ discharged ” up the chimney, were no doubt 
the old-fashioned fowling-pieces which were in use in 
those days. 
According to Sir S. D. Scott,* the “ birding-piece ” 
was identical with the “ snap-hance,” the early form of 
that process of ignition—the flint and steel lock—which 
has survived nearly 300 years, and specimens of which, 
although now becoming rare, may occasionally be met 
with in use, even at the present day. It was a Dutch 
invention ; and is said to have been brought into use by 
marauders, whom the Dutch called snap-haans } or poultry 
stealers. The light from the burning match, which 
necessarily accompanied the match-lock, exposed them to 
* “The British Army : its Origin, Progress, and Equipment,” London, 1868, 
vol. ii. pp. 284-286. 
