THE ZOOLOGIST

FOR

1867.

The Birds of Shakespeare. By J. E. HARTING, F.Z.S.
(Continued from S. S. 264.)

The following line from 'King Lear' would seem to imply the poet's impression that the wren is polygamous:

"Die for adultery! no, the wren goes to 't."

King Lear, Act iv. Scene 6.

But, so far as we are aware, the observations of naturalists tend to prove the contrary.

"The pretty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence,
And open this to Pericles."

Pericles, Act iv. Scene 4.

"Came he right now to sing a raven's note,
Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers;
And thinks he that the chirping of a wren,
By crying comfort from a hollow breast,
Can chase away the first-conceived sound?"

Henry VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2.

This passage has been before explained under the head of " Raven." (See Zool. S. S. 468).

CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus).

"The plain song cuckoo gray,

Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer nay:

For indeed who would set his wish to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so?”—Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. Scene 1.

"So when he had occasion to be seen,

He was but as the cuckoo is in June,

Heard, not regarded."

SECOND SERIES-VOL. II.

Henry IV., Part I. Act iii. Scene 2.

B

For by this time the cuckoo has been in song for a month, and is therefore less regarded than upon its first arrival in April, when it is listened to as the harbinger of spring.

In the same Play, Worcester, addressing the King, says:

"And being fed by us, you used us so
As that ungentle gull the cuckoo's bird
Useth the sparrow; did oppress our nest,

Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk

That even our love durst not come near your sight,

For fear of swallowing."

Id., Act v. Scene 1.

Allusion is thus made to the popular belief that the cuckoo, after being hatched and fed by the hedge sparrow, as soon as it is sufficiently strong, turns out the young of its foster parent.

"gulled,"

The word "gull" is usually applied to the person beguiled. Here it must either mean the "guller" or it must have a special application to the voracity of the cuckoo, as the sea-gull is supposed to be so called from 'gulo'' gulosus.'

Tooke holds that gull, guile, wile, and guilt, are all from the AngloSaxon 'wiglian,' 'gewiglian,' that by which any one is deceived. The "fear of swallowing" expressed in the last quotation was not altogether groundless, if we are to believe the following:

"The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long

That it had its head bit off by its young."
King Lear, Act i. Scene 4.

Mr. Guest (Phil. Pro. i. 280) gives a different reading of this passage, and observes, that "in the dialects of the north-western counties, formerly it was sometimes used for its, and so in 'King Lear' we have

'The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
That it had it head bit off by it young.'

that is, that it has had its head, not that it had its head, as the modern Editors give the passage, after the Second Folio. So likewise, long before its was generally received, we have it self commonly printed in two words, evidently under the impression that it was a possessive of the same syntactical force with the pronouns in my self, your self, her self. So in 'Timon of Athens,' we read:

*See The English of Shakspeare,' &c., by George Craik.

And now "will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver begin:

In the old copies the four first lines of the first stanza are arranged in couplets, and run thus:

* Pied means parti-coloured, of different hues. Thus in the Merchant of Venice:'

"That all the eanlings which were streaked and pied.”

And in the 'Tempest,' Caliban says, "What a pied ninny's this," alluding to the parti-coloured dress which Trinculo, as a jester, wore.

"When daisies pied and violets blue,

And cuckoo buds of yellow hue,
And lady-smocks all silver white

Do paint the meadows with delight."

But as in all the other stanzas the rhymes are alternate, this was most probably an error of the compositor. The transposition now generally adopted was first made by Theobald.

"Take heed ere summer comes or cuckoo birds do sing."

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Scene 1.

Apropos of cuckoo songs, the following is considered to be the earliest ballad in the English language now extant. Its date is about the latter years of the reign of Henry III., and it affords a curious example of the alterations which our tongue has undergone since that time; whilst the descriptions, which breathe of rural sights and sounds, show that nature has suffered no change." For the benefit of those who are not antiquarians a translation is annexed.

The fact of the cuckoo building no nest, but making use of the nest of other birds, appears to have been long known. In Antony and Cleopatra' we read:

"Thou dost o'ercount me of my father's house,

But since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
Remain in't as thou may'st."

Act ii. Scene 6.

"He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo, by the bad voice."

Merchant of Venice, Act v. Scene 1.

"For I the ballad will repeat

Which men full true will find,

Your marriage comes by destiny,

Your cuckoo sings by kind."

All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. Scene 3.