Venus and Adonis.
The game flown at was called in hawking parlance the “quarry,” and differed according to the hawk that was used. The gerfalcon and peregrine were flown at herons, ducks, pigeons, rooks, and magpies; the goshawk was used for hares and partridges; while the smaller kinds, such as the merlin and hobby, were trained to take blackbirds, larks, and snipe. The French falconers, however, do not appear to have been so particular:—
“We’ll e’en to ’t like French falconers, fly at anything we see.”—Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2.
THE QUARRY.
The word “quarry” occurs in many of the Plays.
“This ‘quarry’ cries on havoc.”[48]
Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2.
In the language of the forest, “quarry” also meant a heap of slaughtered game. So, in Coriolanus (Act iii. Sc. 1), Caius Marcius says:—
“And let me use my sword, I’d make a ‘quarry’
With thousands of these quarter’d slaves.”