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NOTWITHSTANDING the comprehensive titles of the preceding chapters, there are several birds mentioned by Shakespeare which cannot, with propriety, be included in any of them. We have, therefore, deemed it advisable to notice them separately under the above heading.

Naturalists have frequently remarked upon the propensity which some birds have to become restless and noisy before rain. Familiar examples are, the Peacock; the Green Woodpecker, which, on this account, in some parts of the country, is called "rain-bird;" the Golden Plover, whose Latin and French name, Pluvialis and Pluvier, have reference to the same peculiarity; and the Woodcock, which, as Gilbert White says, has been observed "to be remarkably listless against snowy, foul weather." Shakespeare has noticed this peculiarity in the Parrot

"More clamorous than a parrot against rain.”—As You Like It, Act iv. Sc. I.

It is not quite clear when parrots were first introduced as cage birds, but their attractive colours, and aptitude for learning tricks and words, no doubt brought them into notice at an early period. Shakespeare knew that to ensure success in teaching a parrot, the bird must be rewarded::

"The parrot will not do more for an almond.”—-Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 2.

To talk "like a parrot," that is, without reason, is proverbial. Lieutenant Cassio thus upbraids himself after a drunken squabble :

"I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so discreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear and discourse fustian with one's own shadow? Oh, thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!"-Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3..

In a witty scene between Beatrice and Benedick, in Much Ado about Nothing, the former is likened by the latter to "a parrot-teacher," from her great talkative powers :—

"Bened. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my

A PARROT-TEACHER.

273 heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love

now.

Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God, and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that; I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

Bened. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.

Beat. Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were.

Bened. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.*

Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

Bened. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer: but keep your way, o' God's name! I have done.

Beat. You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old."

[Whereupon Don Pedro steps in and puts an end to this bantering.]

Much Ado about Nothing, Act i. Sc. 1.

The "Popinjay" (Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3) apparently is only another name for parrot.

In the Glossary to Chaucer's Works we find the word

*

Compare "Redbreast-teacher," Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

N N

thus explained:-" Popingay, a parrot; Papegaut, Fr.; Papegacy, Belg.; Papagallo, Ital."

In the Privy Purse expenses of King Henry VIII. the following entry occurs under date November, 1532:—

"Itm. The laste daye paied in rewarde to a

woman that wolde have gyven a popin

gay to the King's grace

x š.

The practice of turning to advantage the capability which certain birds possess for learning to utter words must be of some antiquity, for Pliny alludes to the starlings which were trained for the amusement of the young Cæsars, as being capable of uttering both Latin and Greek.

Shakespeare thus refers to the starling's talking powers :

"Hotspur. He said, he would not ransom Mortimer;

Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;

But I will find him when he lies asleep,

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And in his ear I'll holloa, Mortimer!'

Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak

Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him,

To keep his anger still in motion."

Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

It is stated that when M. Girardin visited his friend M. Thirel in Paris, he was agreeably astonished at hearing a starling articulate a dozen consecutive sentences with the

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same precision as if they had been spoken by some person in the next room; and when the bell rang for mass, the same bird called to its mistress, by name, "Mademoiselle, entendez-vous la messe que l'on sonne? Prenez votre livre et revenez vite, donner à manger à votre polisson." If this statement can be depended upon, M. Girardin might well have been astonished.

It was formerly believed that during the time the Halcyon or Kingfisher was engaged in hatching her eggs, the water, in kindness to her, remained so smooth and calm, that the mariner might venture on the sea with the happy certainty of not being exposed to storms or tempests; this period was therefore called, by Pliny and Aristotle, “the halcyon days."

66

Expect Saint Martin's* summer, halcyon days.”
Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

It was also supposed that the dead bird, carefully balanced and suspended by a single thread, would always turn its beak towards that point of the compass from which the wind blew.

Kent, in King Lear (Act II. Sc. 2), speaks of rogues who

"Turn their halcyon beaks

With every gale and vary of their masters."

And, after Shakespeare, Marlowe, in his Few of Malta,

says,

* To this day the bird is still called "Martin-pécheur" by the French.

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