The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 26

"The ancient saying is no heresy, Hanging and wiving goes by destiny."

_Merchant of Venice_, Act ii. Sc. 9.

King Henry IV., alluding to his predecessor, says:--

"So when he had occasion to be seen, He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded."

_Henry IV._ Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.

For in June the cuckoo has been in song for a month, and is therefore less noticed than on its first arrival in April, when listened to as the harbinger of Spring.

_Apropos_ of the cuckoo's song, the following ballad is considered to be the earliest in the English language now extant. Its date is about the latter part of the reign of Henry III., and it affords a curious example of the alterations which our language has undergone since that time; while the descriptions, which breathe of rural sights and sounds, show that nature has suffered no change:--

"Sumer is ic.u.men in, Lhude sing cuccu; Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springeth the wde nu; Sing cuccu.

Awe bleteth after lamb, Lhouth after calve cu; Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth, Murie sing cuccu; Cuccu, cuccu; Wel singes thu cuccu, Ne swik thu naver nu."

Summer is come in, Loud sing cuckoo; The seed groweth and the mead bloweth, And the wood shoots now; Sing cuckoo.

The ewe bleats after the lamb, The cow lows after the calf; The bullock starts, the buck verts, Merrily sing cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo; Well singest thou cuckoo, Mayest thou never cease.

This song is preserved amongst the Harleian MSS., No. 978, and is remarkable for being accompanied with musical notes, and as being the oldest sample of English secular music.

The Wagtail (_Motacilla Yarrellii_) has no claim to be included amongst the birds of song, but as the latter are chiefly small birds, and as Shakespeare has only alluded to it once, we may be excused for introducing it in the present chapter.

In an opprobrious sense, the word "wagtail" would doubtless denote a pert, flippant fellow. Kent, in _King Lear_ (Act ii. Sc. 2), says,--

"Spare my grey beard, you _wagtail_!"

In many parts of the country this bird is called "dishwasher," and the name appears to be of some antiquity. Turbervile, in his "Booke of Falconrie," 1575, speaking of the various kinds of animals and birds whose flesh is proper for hawks to feed on, says (p. 137),--"The flesh of these flesh-crowes (_i.e._ carrion crows), and of the wagtayles (or _dishwasher_, as we tearme them, in Latin called _Motacilla_), and the cormorant, is of euil nourishment and digestion."

[Sidenote: BIRD-CATCHING.]

While on the subject of small birds in general, and song birds in particular, it will be interesting to glance at the methods which were formerly practised for catching them. These methods were many and various in kind. Springes, gins, bat-fowling, bird-lime, bird-bolts, and birding-pieces are all mentioned by Shakespeare.

The "springe" and the "gin" we shall have occasion to notice later in our remarks upon the Woodc.o.c.k, for which bird these snares were usually employed. The ancient practice of "bat-fowling," or "bat-folding," is noticed in "_The Tempest_," Act ii. Sc. 1:--

"He would so, and then go _a bat-fowling_."

[Sidenote: BAT-FOWLING.]

In Markham's "Hunger's Prevention," 1600, are some curious directions on this subject, which afford a very good idea of the way in which this sport was practised formerly:--

"For the manner of bat-fowling, it may be used either with nettes or without nettes.

"If you vse it without nettes (which indeed is the most common of the two), you shall then proceed in this manner. First, there shall be one to carry the cresset of fire[86] (as was showed for the _low-bell_), then a certaine number, as two, three, or foure (according to the greatness of your company), and these shall have poales bound with dry round wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or else bound with pieces of linkes or hurdes dipt in pitch, rosen, grease, or any such like matter that will blaze. Then another company shall be armed with long poales, very rough and bushy at the vpper endes, of which the willow, byrche, or long hazell are best, but indeede according as the country will afford, so you must be content to take.

"Thus being prepared, and comming into the bushy or rough grounde, where the haunts of byrdes are, you shall then first kindle some of your fiers, as halfe or a third part, according as your prouision is, and then with your other bushy and rough poales you shall beat the bushes, trees, and haunts of the birds, to enforce them to rise, which done you shall see the birds which are raysed, to flye and playe about the lights and flames of the fier, for it is their nature through their amazednesse and affright at the strangenes of the light and the extreame darknesse round about it, not to depart from it, but, as it were, almost to scorch their wings in the same: so that those whice haue the rough bushye poales may (at their pleasures) beat them down with the same and so take them. Thus you may spend as much of the night as is darke, for longer is not conuenient, and doubtlesse you shall find much pastime, and take great store of birds, and in this you shall obserue all the obseruations formerly treated of in the _Low-bell_; especially that of silence, until your lights be kindled, but then you may use your pleasure, for the noyse and the light when they are heard and scene afarre of, they make the byrdes sit the faster and surer.

"The byrdes which are commonly taken by this labour or exercise are, for the most part, the rookes, ring-doues, blackbirdes, throstles, feldyfares, linnets, bulfinches, and all other byrdes whatsouer that pearch or sit vpon small boughes or bushes."

The term "bat-fowling," however, had another signification in Shakespeare's day, and it may have been in this secondary sense that it is used in the last quotation. It was a slang word for a particular mode of cheating, just as other modes, in the same age, were known as "gull-groping," "sheep-shearing," "lime-twigging," "spoon-dropping,"

"stone-carrying," &c.

"Bat-fowling" was practised about dusk, when the rogue pretended to have dropped a ring or a jewel at the door of some well-furnished shop, and, going in, asked the apprentice of the house to light his candle to look for it. After some peering about, the bat-fowler would drop the candle, as if by accident.

"Now, I pray you, good young man," he would say, "do so much as light the candle again." While the boy was away the rogue plundered the shop, and having stole everything he could find, stole away himself.[87]

[Sidenote: BIRD-LIME.]

"Birdlime," which, as most people know, is made from the bark of the holly, has long been in use for taking small birds. Shakespeare makes frequent mention of it:--

"The bird that hath been _limed_ in a bush, With trembling wings mis...o...b..eth every bush; And I, the hapless mate to one sweet bird, Have now the fatal object in my eye Where my poor young was _lim'd_, was caught and kill'd."

_Henry VI._ Part III. Act v. Sc. 6.

A similar idea will be found in _Lucrece_:--

"Birds never _lim'd_, no secret bushes fear."

Again--

"They are _limed_ with the twigs that threaten them."

_All's Well that ends Well_, Act iii. Sc. 5.

And--

"She's _limed_, I warrant you."

_Much Ado_, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Suffolk, speaking to Queen Margaret of Duke Humphrey's wife, says:--

"Madam, myself have _lim'd_ a bush for her, And plac'd a quire of such enticing birds, That she will light to listen to their lays, And never mount to trouble you again."

_Henry VI._ Part II. Act i. Sc. 3.

And the d.u.c.h.ess of Gloucester, addressing her husband, warns him that--

... "York and impious Beaufort, that false priest, Have all _lim'd_ bushes to betray thy wings, And, fly thou how thou cans't, they'll tangle thee."

_Henry VI._ Part II. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Further allusions to the use of birdlime will be found in _Oth.e.l.lo_ (Act ii. Sc. 1), and _Twelfth Night_ (Act iii. Sc. 4).

Now-a-days the practice is to set up a stuffed bird of the species required against a tree by means of a wire, and surround it with three or four other wires well smeared with birdlime, placing a live call-bird in a small dark cage at the foot of the tree to attract the attention of the wild birds. These latter, on hearing the notes of the captive, fly towards the spot, and deceived by the appearance of the stuffed specimen, perch close to it upon a limed wire and are caught, the owner of the snare generally coming out of ambush to take them before they have time to free themselves.

[Sidenote: BIRD-TRAPS.]