Obs. [Of unknown origin: some compare It. ‘barletta a tree falcon, a hobby’; the Corpus Gloss. has ‘bariulus reagufinc,’ some kind of finch. Cf. also BAWTERE.]
According to 18th-c. dictionaries, the female and male respectively of a kind of hawk; see quot.
1706. Phillips, Bawrel, a kind Hawk, that for Size and Shape, is somewhat like the Lanner, but has a longer Body and Sails.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Hawk, [The] Bawrel [has] her Bawret.
1755. in Johnson, and mod. dicts.
