On Sun, 19 Nov 1995, Dale Goble wrote:
> Stares Heades a peny; ... For everie Heade of Martyn
> Hawkes Fursekytte Moldkytte Busarde Schagge
> Carmera[n]t or Ryngtayle, two pence; and for every two
> Egges of them, one peny;

Back to the harder ones--actually got up out of chair and walked to the
library--really nice day to do so--juncos on the way.
1) Martyn Hawkes--comes from french Marten-chasseur, and refers to the
Male Hen Harrier. See 1a.
1a) Rynge tayle--Two possibilities, but given date, it's probably
referring to ring-tail, or the Female Hen Harrier. Male and female
harriers were thought to be a separate species at this time and were
called by different names (like ruff and reeve). If I recall correctly,
the Hen Harrier is the same species as our Northern Harrier.
The second possibility is Golden Eagle--young eagles especially
were known as ring-tails or ring-tailed eagles. However, I;d bet on the
first; the reference in the OED for harrier was 1538 and the spelling was
the same as here. The earliest eagle reference was from 1714.
2) Fursekytte--Literally, fierce (furse) Kite. No species
differentiation given; had to put 2 + 2 together.
3) Moldkytte--Is not a bird with blue fuzz growing on its back. Mold is
an alternative of mole--thus we get mole kite from this. Again a
two-part process, no neat listing given, even under mole.
This is too much fun. Better go grade some papers. RK
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Korpi "Under transient skies
Hm: Portland, OR I cannot hobble change,
Wk: Clark College Not now or ever."
Vancouver, WA --William Kloefkorn
rkorpi at clark.edu From _Alvin_Turner_as_Farmer_, #16