BIRDIN G-PIECES. 165 
detection ; and the wheel-lock was an article too expensive 
for them to purchase, as well as being liable to get out of 
order ; so this lock was devised, and was suggested, no 
doubt, by the wheel-lock. It consisted in the substitution 
of flint for pyrites, and a furrowed plate of steel in lieu of 
the wheel. When the trigger was pulled, it brought this 
jagged piece of steel in collision with the flint, which 
threw down its shower of sparks into the open pan, and 
lighted the priming. This improvement apparently took 
place about the close of the sixteenth century. 
There is a very early “ snap-hance ” in the Tower 
Collection, numbered -f§- It is a “ birding-piece ” of 
Prince Charles, afterwards King Charles I., date 1614, and 
furnishes a good illustration of the form of gun in use in 
Shakespeare’s day. It is engraved both on lock and 
barrel. The butt is remarkably thin ; the length of the 
whole arm is four feet two inches, and was consequently 
