Note 235 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
A quibble is perhaps intended between bate, the term of falconry, and abate, i. e., fall off, dwindle. “Bate is a term in falconry, to flutter the wings as preparing for flight, particularly at the sight of prey.” In ‘1 Henry IV.’ (iv. 1):
“‘All plumed like estridges, that with the wind Bated, like eagles having lately bathed.’”
—Nares’s “Glossary,” vol. i. p. 60.