The Peregrine Falcon
Malvolio. ‘M. O. A. I. doth sway my life.’ Nay but first, let me see, let me see, let me see.
Fabian. With what dish o’ poison has she dressed him!
Sir Toby. And with what wing the staniel checks at it![68]
The Sparrow-Hawk
The sparrow-hawk (Musket) is only once alluded to in the Plays, and then as a kind of pet name applied by Mrs. Ford to little Robin, the page:
How now, my eyas-musket! what news with you?[69]
The buzzard is mentioned several times by Shakespeare, and always in a more or less depreciatory sense. It is a large handsome bird, but compared with the falcon is slow and heavy in flight. So in the encounter of wits between Petruchio and Katharine, he in his characteristic falconer’s language asks her:
O slow-winged turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?[70]