337. See note on the faucon peregrin, Squi. Tale, 420 (F 428). 'Beautifully described as "distreining" the king's hand with its foot, because carried by persons of the highest rank'; Bell. Read, 'with 's feet.'
339. Merlion, merlin. 'The merlin is the smallest of the long-winged hawks, and was generally carried by ladies'; Bell.
342. From Alanus (see p. [74]):—'Illic olor, sui funeris præco, mellitæ citherizationis organo vitæ prophetabat apocopam.' The same idea is mentioned by Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Nat. lib. xvi. c. 50; Pliny says he believes the story to be false, Nat. Hist. lib. x. c. 23. See Compl. of Anelida, l. 346. 'The wild swan's death-hymn'; Tennyson, The Dying Swan. Cf. Ovid, Heroid. vii. 2.
343. From Alanus:—'Illic bubo, propheta miseriæ, psalmodias funereæ lamentationis præcinebat.' So in the Rom. de la Rose, 5999:—
'Li chahuan ...
Prophetes de male aventure,
Hideus messagier de dolor.'
Cf. Vergil, Æn. iv. 462; Ovid, Metam. v. 550, whence Chaucer's allusion in Troilus, v. 319; Shakespeare, Mid. Nt. D. v. 385.
344. Geaunt, giant. Alanus has:—'grus ... in giganteæ quantitatis evadebat excessum.' Vincent (lib. xvi. c. 91) quotes from Isidore:—'Grues nomen de propria voce sumpserunt, tali enim sono susurrant.'