Part 6

[121] _3 Henry VI._ I. iv. 61.

[122] _Hamlet_, I. iii. 115.

[123] _Twelfth Night_, II. v. 77.

[124] _Winter’s Tale_, IV. iv. 727.

[125] _Much Ado about Nothing_, II. i. 128.

[126] _Othello_, I. iii. 379. In Shakespeare’s time the bird was also called snite, under which form it is referred to by his contemporary poet, Drayton, who speaks of

The witless woodcock and his neighbour snite.

The use of the word “snipe” as a disparaging epithet for an individual is not yet extinct in the north.

[127] _Antony and Cleopatra_, II. iii. 34.

[128] _Troilus and Cressida_, V. i. 48.

[129] _Comedy of Errors_, IV. ii. 27. It was this instinct of deception that Chaucer had in mind when he wrote of “the false lapwing ful of trecherye.” _Parlement_, 347.

[130] _Much Ado about Nothing_, III. i. 23.

[131] _Measure for Measure_, I. iv. 31.

[132] _1 Henry IV._ II. ii. 95.

[133] _Antony and Cleopatra_, III. x. 19.

[134] _Venus and Adonis_, 85.

[135] _Sonnets_, CXXVII.

[136] _Romeo and Juliet_, III. ii. 17.

[137] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, II. ii. 113.

[138] _King John_, IV. iii. 152.

[139] _Twelfth Night_, V. i. 125.

[140] _Romeo and Juliet_, III. ii. 75.

[141] _Titus Andronicus_, II. iii. 153.

[142] _As You Like It_, II. iii. 43.

[143] _Othello_, IV. i. 20.

[144] _Macbeth_, I. v. 35.

[145] _Macbeth_, III. ii. 50.

[146] _Sonnet_, lxx.

[147] _Romeo and Juliet_, I. v. 45.

[148] _Lucrece_, 1009.

[149] _Romeo and Juliet_, I. ii. 86.

[150] _King Lear_, IV. vi. 11.

[151] _Ibid._ 58.

[152] _Hamlet_, V. ii. 85.

[153] _Tempest_, II. i. 254. Chaucer’s epithet for the Chough was “the theef.”

[154] _All’s Well that Ends Well_, IV. i. 19.

[155] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, III. ii. 19. The chough, by association with man, may become a companionable creature. At Ardkinglas, Loch Fyne, Lady Noble has kept for some years a couple of choughs, brought from Ireland, which are at liberty to fly about the woods and hills, but come back to the mansion house for food and attend their mistress or her guests along the pathways. They even come into the house and perch on the hand of any one who has the courage to invite them.

[156] _Macbeth_, III. iv. 123.

[157] _1 Henry IV._ I. iii. 221.

[158] _1 Henry VI._ II. iv. 16.

[159] _3 Henry VI._ V. vi. 46. Chaucer’s epithet for this bird was “the jangling pye.”

[160] _Tempest_, II. ii. 158.

[161] _Merry Wives_, III. iii. 34.

[162] _Cymbeline_, III. iv. 47.

[163] _Taming of the Shrew_, IV. iii. 165.

[164] _1 Henry IV._ II. i. 15. Chaucer’s reference to the bird is “The cok, that orloge is of thorpes lyte.” _Parlement_, 350.

[165] _Romeo and Juliet_, IV. iv. 3.

[166] _Tempest_, I. ii. 384.

[167] _Hamlet_, I. i. 147-164.

[168] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, III. ii. 20.

[169] _King Lear_, II. iv. 45.

[170] _As You Like It_, II. vii. 86.

[171] _Romeo and Juliet_, II. iv. 69.

[172] _Cymbeline_, III. iv. 138.

[173] _1 Henry IV._ V. iii. 56.

[174] _Titus Andronicus_, IV. ii. 101.

[175] _Antony and Cleopatra_, III. ii. 48.

[176] _3 Henry VI._ I. iv. 19.

[177] _Lucrece_, 1611. Chaucer had already chronicled “the jalous swan, ayens his deth that singeth.” _Parlement of Foules_, 342.

[178] _King John_, V. vii. 20.

[179] _Othello_, V. ii. 249.

[180] _Merchant of Venice_, III. ii. 43.

[181] V. i. 14.

[182] _Twelfth Night_, II. v. 28.

[183] _1 Henry IV._ II. i. 25.

[184] _1 Henry VI._ III. iii. 5. Chaucer refers to

The pecock, with his aungels fethres brighte.

[185] _Troilus and Cressida_, III. iii. 244.

[186] _King Henry V._ IV. i. 195.

[187] _Comedy of Errors_, IV. iii. 74.

[188] _Venus and Adonis_, 1190.

[189] _Merchant of Venice_, II. vi. 5.

[190] _2 Henry IV._ V. i. 25.

[191] _Merchant of Venice_, II. ii. 123.

[192] _3 Henry VI._ II. ii. 17.

[193] _Antony and Cleopatra_, III. xiii. 196.

[194] _3 Henry VI._ I. iv. 40.

[195] Chaucer’s phrase is:

The wedded turtel, with hir herte trewe. _Parlement_, 355.

It was the moaning croon of the bird from the high elms that dwelt in Virgil’s memory.

[196] _1 Henry VI._ II. ii. 30.

[197] IV. iv. 154.

[198] _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, V. ii. 315.

[199] _Hamlet_, II. ii. 572.

[200] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, III. i. 114.

[201] _Venus and Adonis_, 853.

[202] _Troilus and Cressida_, IV. ii. 8.

[203] II. iii. 19.

[204] _Romeo and Juliet_, III. v. 1-32.

[205] _2 Henry IV._ III. ii. 7. I have heard in East Lothian a remarkably dark-complexioned child called “a blacket ouzel.”

[206] _Winter’s Tale_, IV. iii. 9.

[207] _Macbeth_, IV. ii. 8.

[208] _Cymbeline_, IV. ii. 304.

[209] _Merchant of Venice_, V. i. 104.

[210] _2 Henry VI._ III. ii. 42.

[211] _King Lear_, II. ii. 59.

[212] II. v. 5.

[213] _Cymbeline_, IV. ii. 219. Chaucer speaks of “the tame ruddock.”

[214] _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, II. i. 16.

[215] _1 Henry IV._ III. i. 260.

[216] _King Lear_, I. iv. 214.

[217] _Troilus and Cressida_, V. i. 34.

[218] _Hamlet_, V. ii. 212.

[219] _As You Like It_, II. iii. 44.

[220] _Tempest_, IV. i. 99.

[221] _Troilus and Cressida_, II. i. 67.

[222] Chaucer regarded this bird from another point of view:――

The swalow, mordrer of the flyës smale That maken hony of floures fresshe of hewe. _Parlement_, 353.

[223] _Richard III._ V. ii. 23.

[224] _Titus Andronicus_, II. ii. 23.

[225] _2 Henry IV._ IV. iii. 31.

[226] _Winter’s Tale_, IV. iv. 118.

[227] _Timon of Athens_, III. vi. 29.

[228] _Merchant of Venice_, II. ix. 28.

[229] _Macbeth_, I. vi. 3.

[230] _Passionate Pilgrim_, xxi.

[231] _Lucrece_, 1079.

[232] _Sonnet_, cii.

[233] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, II. ii. 13.

[234] _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, III. i. 178, V. iv. 1.

[235] _Taming of the Shrew_, Induction, Scene ii. 33.

[236] _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, I. ii. 72.

[237] _Merchant of Venice_, V. i. 102.

Index.

Arden, Forest of, 14, 16, 18.

_As You Like It_, scenery of, 13.

Autumn and Bird-life, 24.

Birds, varied attractions of, 1; modes of capture of, 9-12; at different seasons, 23; list of Shakespeare’s, 28; of prey, 30; of the Crow family, 69; of the Farmyard, 81.

Blackbird, 96.

Bunting, 99.

Buzzard, 42.

Chaucer, his love of Nature, 2; his delight in birds, 3, 4; on the Nightingale, 5; on the Eagle, 31; on the Falcon, 39; on the Kite, 43; on the Owl, 58; on the Lapwing, 67; on the Chough, 76; on the Magpie, 79; on the Cock, 81; on the Swan, 86; on the Peacock, 89; on the Turtle-dove, 92; on the Swallow, 103.

Chough, 74.

Cock, 81.

Cormorant, 51.

Crows, 33, 72, 94.

Cuckoo, 60, 93, 113.

Dabchick or Dive-dapper, 68.

Daws, 38, 78.

Deer-hunting, 18.

Doves, 90.

Duck, wild, 68.

Eagle, 30.

Estridge, 50.

Falcon, 39.

Falconer, Hereditary Grand, 41, note.

Falconry, 36-39.

Finch, 93.

Flies, 20.

Game-birds, 63.

Goose, 83.

Grebes, 58, 68.

Hare-coursing, 20.

Hawks and Hawking, 36, 39.

Hedge-Sparrow, 101.

House-Martin, 104.

House-Sparrow, 101.

Jackdaw, 78.

Jay, 80.

Keats’ “Ode to the Nightingale,” 113.

Kestrel, 40.

Kite, 42.

Lapwing, 67.

Lark, 93, 94, 113.

Loon or Lown, 52.

Mallard, 68.

Magpie, 79.

Martlet, 104.

Mews, origin of, 41, note.

Nature, contrasts in, 26.

Newton, Prof., cited, 42.

Night and its birds, 56, 95.

Nightingale, 95, 106, 113.

Osprey, 46.

Ostrich, 50.

Ousel, 93, 96.

Owl, 54.

Papingo, in Archery, 50.

Parrot, 48.

Partridge, 65.

Peacock, 89.

Pelican, 51.

Peregrine Falcon, 40.

Pheasant, 64.

Philomela or Nightingale, 106.

Pigeon, 90, 92.

Popinjay, 49.

Quail, 66.

Raven, 69.

Redbreast, 100.

Rook, 72.

Ruddock, 100.

Shakespeare’s youthful surroundings, 6; his sports, 7, 8, 9; his sympathy with living creatures, 7.

Shelley’s “Ode to the Skylark,” 113.

Snipe, 66.

Sparrow-hawk, 41.

Spring and birds, 24.

Starling, 78.

Summer, birds in, 23.

Swallow, 103.

Swan, 85.

Thrush or Throstle, 93, 97.

Turkey-cock, 88.

Turtle-dove, 91.

Vulture, 46.

Wagtail, 99.

Wild-duck, 68.

Wild-goose, 83.

Winter, birds in, 25.

Woodcock, 63.

Wordsworth’s “Ode to the Cuckoo,” 113.

Wren, 93, 98.

Glasgow: Printed at the University Press by Robert MacLehose and Co. Ltd.

Transcriber’s Note:

Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged. Two misspelled words were corrected.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the book. Some illustrations were moved nearer to the relevant text.

Page headers are presented as sidenotes. Printer’s marks indicating placement of illustrations were removed.