Hawk-Eye

Name given by frontier men to Natty Bumppo, who is also called by the French, La Longue Carbine .—James Feni more Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans. To know a hawk from a handsaw , a corruption of “from a hernshaw” (i.e. a heron ), meaning that one is so ignorant, he does not know a hawk from a heron: the bird of prey from the game flown at. The Romans had a proverb, Ignorat quid distent ara lupin is (“he does not know money from lupines,” or beans); lupines were used on the Roman stage as money. We have a proverb, “He doesn’t know beans,” which may be descended from the Roman saying.