The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 47

[156] _Geck_--a laughing-stock. According to Capel, from the Italian _ghezzo_. Dr. Jamieson, however, derives it from the Teutonic _geck_, _jocus_.

[157] See also _Oth.e.l.lo_, Act v. Sc. 2, and _Timon of Athens_, Act ii.

Sc. 1.

[158] See D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," iii. p. 84.

[159] Thornbury, "Shakespeare's England," vol. i. pp. 311, 312.

Doubtless compiled from Greene's "Art of Coney Catching," 1591, and Decker's "English Villanies," 1631.

[160] Compare "Redbreast-teacher," _Henry IV._ Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

[161] To this day the bird is still called "Martin-pecheur" by the French.

[162] "Arondell," no doubt the old French, or a corruption of "Hirondelle."

[163] One would suppose that such a foreign substance as a "swallow-stone" in the eye would be much more inconvenient than the eyelash which it was destined to remove.

[164] Curious, if true. Dr. Lebour does not say that he ever found such stones himself, nor does he vouch for their having been found by others in the nests. We have examined a great number of swallows' nests without being able to discover anything of the kind.

[165] Pliny makes mention of a "swallow-stone," but says nothing about its being found in the nest. On the contrary, he says it is found in the stomach of the bird! "In ventre hirundinum pullus _lapilli_ candido aut rubenti colore, qui 'chelidonii' vocantur, magicis narrati artibus reperiuntur."

[166] The substance of the above remarks was contributed by the author in an article published in _The Zoologist_ for 1867, p. 744.

[167] "The Birds of India," iii. p. 610.

[168] Some editions read--

"All plum'd like estridges that wing the wind; Bated like eagles having lately bath'd."

But we have adopted the above reading in preference for three reasons: 1. Considering the rudimentary nature of the ostrich's wing, Shakespeare would not have been so incorrect as to describe them as "winging the wind;" 2. The word "bated," if intended to refer to eagles, and not to ostriches, would have been more correctly "bating;" 3. The expression, "to bate with the wind," is well understood in the language of falconry, with which Shakespeare was familiar.

[169] Cinquieme series, tom. viii. pp. 285-293.

[170] _Ibis_, 1868, pp. 363-370.

[171] "Oiseaux Fossiles de la France," p. 230.

[172] "Synopsis," iii. p. 577 (1785).

[173] "Suppl. Orn. Dict." (1813).

[174] "Hist. Brit. An." p. 118 (1828).

[175] "Works:" Wilkin's ed. vol. iv. p. 318.