Note 54 — Chapter II · HAWKS AND HAWKING.

The weapon of this name, the most important of small fire-arms, is said to have borrowed its title from this the most useful of small hawks, in the same way that other arms—as the falcon, falconet, and saker—have derived their names from larger and more formidable birds of prey. Against this view it is asserted that the musket was invented in the fifteenth century by the Muscovites, and owes its name to its inventors. See Bescherelle, “Dict. Nat.,” and “The Target: a Treatise upon the Art Military,” 1756.