only the magpie, but also the jackdaw and starling, busily engaged in searching for insects on the back of a sheep. As in the case of the jackdaw, the magpie is sometimes called by the latter half of his name :—

"And chattering pies in dismal discords sung.'

Henry VI. Part III. Act v. Sc. 6.

Before taking leave of the crow family, we have yet to notice another bird mentioned by Shakespeare, which is nearly related to the crow. This is the Rook (Corvus frugilegus). But, notwithstanding the usefulness of the bird, the poet has not said much in its favour. It is noticed in the song in Love's Labour's Lost, and is included amongst the birds of omen in the quotation lately given from Macbeth.

In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 3, we find the expression "bully-rook," and it would seem that this epithet in Shakespeare's time bore much the same signification as “jolly-dog" does now-a-days. But it came subsequently to have a more offensive meaning, and was applied to a cheat and a sharper.

We had well-nigh forgotten the Jay (Corvus glandarius), -Winter's Tale (Act iv. Sc. 3), and only allude to it now to show that Shakespeare has not omitted it from his long list of birds. In Cymbeline, the name is applied to a gaudily-dressed person :

"Some jay of Italy hath betray'd him."

Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4.

R

No doubt on account of the bright plumage of this bird.

"What, is the jay more precious than the lark,

Because his feathers are more beautiful?"

Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 3.

Caliban, addressing Trinculo, in The Tempest (Act ii.

Sc. 2), exclaims:

"I pr'ythee let me bring thee where crabs grow,
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts;
Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how
To snare the nimble marmozet; I'll bring thee
To clust'ring filberds, and sometimes I'll get thee
Young sea-mells from the rock. Wilt thou go with me?"

This tempting offer is irresistible, and Stephano interrupts him at once by saying,

"I pr'ythee now, lead the way, without any more talking."

IF there is one class of birds more than another to which poets in all ages have been indebted for inspiration, and to which they have directed particular attention, it is that which includes the birds of song. Shakespeare, as a naturalist, could not have overlooked them. Nor has he done so. These "light-wing'd Dryads of the trees" have received at his hands all the praise which they deserve, while oftentimes, for melody and pathos, he may be said to have borrowed from their songs himself.

Of all the singers in the woodland choir the Nightingale (Luscinia philomela), by common consent, stands first. For quality of voice, variety of notes, and execution, she is probably unrivalled. Hence, with poets, she has ever been the chief favourite. Izaak Walton has truly said, "The nightingale breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it might make mankind to think

miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling, of her voice, might well be lifted above earth and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?" To "sing like a nightingale" has passed into a proverb.

"She sings as sweetly as any nightingale."

Taming of the Shrew, Act ii. Sc. 1.

In Gardiner's “Music of Nature," the following passage

is given from the song of the Nightingale :

tr

Although the male bird only is the songster, yet we talk of her singing:

"It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree ;*
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 5.

The origin of this change of sex is to be found, no

* According to Steevens, this is not merely a poetical supposition. 'It is observed," he says, "of the nightingale that, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together;" and Russell, in his "Account of Aleppo," tells us "the nightingale sings from the pomegranate groves in the day-time."

LAMENTING PHILOMEL.

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doubt, in the old fable which tells us of the transformation of Philomela, daughter of Pandion, King of Athens, into a nightingale, when Progne, her sister, was changed to a swallow.*

Hence also the name Philomel, which is often applied by the poets to this bird.

"Philomel, with melody,

Sing your sweet lullaby."

Song-Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. Sc. 2.

"By this, lamenting Philomel had ended

The well-tun'd warble of her nightly sorrow."

"His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day."

Lucrece.

Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3.

The nightingale is again thus designated by Shakespeare in Cymbeline, Act ii. Sc. 2, and elsewhere; and "the tragic tale of Philomel" is prettily referred to in Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Sc. 1.

In one,

if not more, of his poems he has noticed the odd belief which formerly existed to the effect that the mournful notes of the nightingale are caused by the bird's leaning against a thorn to sing!

"Every thing did banish moan,

Save the nightingale alone.