ded,[221] sea-mall, or
sea-mell, being still a provincial name for this bird. Mr. Stevenson, in
his "Birds of Norfolk" (vol. ii. p. 260), tells us that "the female
bar-tailed godwit is called a 'scammell' by the gunners of Blakeney. But
as this bird is not a rock-breeder,[222] it cannot be the one intended
in the present passage, if we regard it as an accurate description from
a naturalist's point of view." Holt says that "scam" is a limpet, and
scamell probably a diminutive. Mr. Dyce[223] reads "scamels," _i. e._,
the kestrel, stannel, or windhover, which breeds in rocky situations and
high cliffs on our coasts. He also further observes that this accords
well with the context "from the rock," and adds that staniel or stannyel
occurs in "Twelfth Night" (ii. 5), where all the old editions exhibit
the gross misprint "stallion."

[217] Some doubt exists as to the derivation of _gull_. Nares
says it is from the old French _guiller_. Tooke holds that
gull, guile, wile, and guilt are all from the Anglo-Saxon
"wiglian, gewiglian," that by which any one is deceived.
Harting's "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 267.

[218] See D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," vol. iii. p. 84.

[219] See Thornbury's "Shakespeare's England," vol. i. pp. 311-322.

[220] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 394.

[221] Harting's "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 269.

[222] Aldis Wright's "Notes to 'The Tempest'," 1875, pp. 120, 121.

[223] See Dyce's "Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 245.

_Hawk._ The diversion of catching game with hawks was very popular in
Shakespeare's time,[224] and hence, as might be expected, we find many
scattered allusions to it throughout his plays. The training of a hawk
for the field was an essential part of the education of a young Saxon
nobleman; and the present of a well-trained hawk was a gift to be
welcomed by a king. Edward the Confessor spent much of his leisure time
in either hunting or hawking; and in the reign of Edward III. we read
how the Bishop of Ely attended the service of the church at Bermondsey,
Southwark, leaving his hawk in the cloister, which in the meantime was
stolen--the bishop solemnly excommunicating the thieves. On one occasion
Henry VIII. met with a serious accident when pursuing his hawk at
Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. In jumping over a ditch his pole broke, and
he fell headlong into the muddy water, whence he was with some
difficulty rescued by one of