Whitby, 1018; gullbilled, in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, 557; blackbreasted, 738; lesser, at Tauntou, 832; whitewinged black, in Norfolk, 951; arctic, near Gravesend, 1017; "wide-awake," 1018 Terns, common and arctic, 975 Thais Cassandra, 1022 Caucasica, 1023 Henrietta, id. Hypsipyle, id. Medecicasta, id. Rumina, 1024 Thamnobia fulicata, 825 Thrush, missel, 547, 688, 888; song, 888; nesting of, 557; rock, in the Isle of Wight, 823, 912 Thrushes, 741; singing at night, 811 Toad-stones and eagle-stones, 707, 835 Varieties, 543; of chaffinch's and other British birds' eggs, 706; blue and white, of British birds' eggs, 754, 823; in birds' eggs, 911; of kestrel's eggs, 948; of birds, 987 Variety of sand martin, 561; of linnet, Visitants, winter, 595; summer, arrival 705; near Newport, 820; pied, 692, 733, 807, 869, 891; wintering in North Yorkshire, 875; gray, 812, 869, 891; grayheaded, near Norwich, 824; Ray's, 891 Wagtails, pied, near Hornsea in January, 634; in January, 704 ; pied and white, 969; yellow and grayheaded, id.; and martins, 990 Warbler, Savi's (2), in Bucks, 704; bluethroated, 732, 750, 821; off the Norfolk coast, 1014; grasshopper, 890; sedge, id.; wood, id.; willow, id. Warblers, summer, 593; reed and sedge, 968; wood and willow, id. Water-fowl, hybridity in, 830 Water-robin, plumbeous, 833 Waxwing, Bohemian, 660, 591; in Norfolk and Suffolk, 633; in Somersetshire, id.; near Whitby, id.; near Great Yarmouth, id.; near Ipswich, 634; at Halligarth, 689; in Wiltshire, 704; at Vienna, id. Waxwings, 561, 596, 752, 907; near Woolwich, 561; in Peebleshire, 606 Weasel, 631, 668 Whales off the Isle of Wight, 554; pilot, in the Firth of Forth, 801 Wheatear, 807, 869, 889, 985, 1007 Whitethroat, 819 Woodcock, 548, 591, 656, 734, 901; singular habit of, 635; pied, 686 Woodcocks nesting, 872 Woodpecker, great spotted, 592; food of, 757; caught in a trap, 949; lesser spotted, in Bucks, 704; near Windsor, 1016; green, variation in the plumage of, 950 Woodpecker's tail, curious abnormal growth of feathers in, 707 Woodpeckers, 813; great spotted and middle spotted, 971 Wren, 895, 908; goldcrested, 548, 752; firecrested in Shropshire, 633; wood, 733, 820, 910; the second primary of, 688; willow, 820, 910 Yellowhammer, 537, 753; white eggs of, 825; late nest of, 949 Zoology, notes on the folk-lore of, 881, 921, 976, 1005 THE ZOOLOGIST FOR 1867. The Birds of Shakespeare. By J. E. HARTING, F.Z.S. 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, Pericles, Act iv. Scene 4. "Came he right now to sing a raven's note, 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 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." 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 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, 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, 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. |