So Massinger, in his "Renegado" (v. 8), makes Asambeg say:

"strive to imp
New feathers to the broken wings of time."

Hawking was sometimes called birding.[243] In the "Merry Wives of
Windsor" (iii. 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." In the same play (iii. 5) Dame Quickly,
speaking of Mistress Ford, says: "Her husband goes this morning
a-birding;" and Mistress Ford says (iv. 2): "He's a-birding, sweet Sir
John." The word hawk, says Mr. Harting, is invariably used by
Shakespeare in its generic sense; and in only two instances does he
allude to a particular species. These are the kestrel and sparrow-hawk.
In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 5) Sir Toby Belch, speaking of Malvolio, as he
finds the letter which Maria has purposely dropped in his path, says:

"And with what wing the staniel[244] checks at it"

--staniel being a corruption of stangdall, a name for the kestrel
hawk.[245] "Gouts" is the technical term for the spots on some parts of
the plumage of a hawk, and perhaps Shakespeare uses the word in allusion
to a phrase in heraldry. Macbeth (ii. 1), speaking of the dagger, says:

"I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood."

[243] Harting's "Ornithology of Shakspeare," p. 72.

[244] The reading of the folios here is stallion; but the word
wing, and the falconer's term _checks_, prove that the bird
must be meant. See Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 832.

[245] See kestrel and sparrow-hawk.

_Heron._ This bird was frequently flown at by falconers. Shakespeare, in
"Hamlet" (ii. 2), makes Hamlet say, "I am but mad north-north-west; when
the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw;" handsaw being a
corruption of "heronshaw," or "hernsew," which is still used, in the
provincial dialects, for a heron. In Suffolk and Norfolk it is
pronounced "harnsa," from which to "handsaw" is but a single step.[246]
Shakespeare here alludes to a proverbial saying, "He knows not a hawk
from a handsaw."[247] Mr. J. C. Heath[248] explains the passage thus:
"The expression obviously refers to the sport of hawking. Most birds,
especially one of heavy flight like the heron, when roused by the
falconer or his dog, would fly down or with the wind, in order to
escape. When the wind is from the north the heron flies