Hawking. Obs. Forms: 5–6 souce, 6–7 sowce, souse, 7 sowse. [Alteration of SOURCE sb. 2 a.]
1. The act, on the part of a bird, of rising from the ground, as giving the hawk an opportunity to strike. Only in phr. at (the) souse.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Hawking, d j b. Iff youre hawke nym the fowle a lofte: ye shall say she toke it at the mounte or at the souce.
1575. Turberv., Faulconrie, 127. The Sparowhawkes do vse to kill the fowle at the Sowrce or Souse, as the Goshawkes do, whiche nature hathe taught them.
c. 1595. Capt. Wyatt, Dudley’s Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 20. The fowle noe soener is putt of from the ryver for the servinge of her, but præsentlie shee falleth and killeth her praie at sowce.
1618. Latham, Falconry (1633), 49. That will cause her to … master them, as it were, at the sowce, within a short space, being no way able in that season to make wing, to hold out before such a Hawke.
1620. Fletcher, Chances, IV. i. Her feares creeping upon her, Dead as a fowle at souse, she’ll sinke.
fig. 1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 145. They [Iesuits] haue, like great fawcons or hawkes of the Tower, firmely seazed vpon the pray, kild, at randon, wing, or souce.
2. The act, on the part of a hawk, of swooping down upon a bird. Also fig.
Perh. partly due to confusion with sb.2
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 36. As a Faulcon faire That once hath failed of her souse full neare.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Maiden’s Blush, 342. The stout Ger-Faulcon stoopeth at the Herne, With sudden Souse, that many scarce discerne.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. ii. I presume she is a wanton, And therefore mean to give the sowse whenever I find the game on wing.
