1902 Some Birds in Shakspear 133 



Shakspear's days Eagles and Vultures were not very 

 common, and consequently he dealt with them in much 

 the same way that Dante does when speaking of animals 

 of which he had but little personal knowledge ; that is to 

 say, he confines himself to generalities, or takes refuge in 

 classical allusions. This is particularly true of Vultures. 

 There are two of this breed that appear as British birds — 

 the Griffon Vulture {Gyp^ fulvus) and the Egyptian Vulture 

 {Neophron perenoptcrus). The latter, though filthy in its 

 habits, is a magnificent bird, quite ladylike in its appear- 

 ance about its neck, with its cloud of down. I have never 

 met with them in England, but I have seen them wheeling 

 round and round the rugged crags of the Picos de Europa 

 in Northern Spain. I have even watched one close, dis- 

 posing of some carrion near a farmhouse, where I nearly 

 stalked it on the ground. I doubt Shakspear ever having 

 seen them, for all his references seem to picture the bird 

 as it was known to the Ettrick Shepherd in ' Noctes Am- 

 brosianse ' : " He has a hideous head of his own — fiendlike 

 eyes and nostrils that woo the murky air — and beak fit to 

 dig into brain or heart. Don't forget Prometheus' liver " ; 

 and Shakspear does not do so. He says, " Let vultures 

 gripe thy guts " ; " Let vultures vile seize on his lungs " ; or 

 again, "The gnawing vulture of the mind." There is no 

 touch of the naturalist here, and this is true in part of what 

 he says of Eagles. To him the bird represents what is 

 princely, and in " Cymbeline," where it is most often 

 mentioned, it has the further connotation of belonging 

 to Rome. Otherwise he deals with its proverbial keen- 

 sightedness (" Love's Labour's Lost," iv. 3), " Peremptory 

 eagle-sighted," as also in the same scene, " The lover's 

 eyes will gaze the eagle blind." Beyond that he speaks 

 of its voraciousness, especially when hungry (in " Henry 



VL,"i. I)— 



"The Duke, 

 Whose haughty spirit, winged with desire. 

 Will cost my crown, and like an empty eagle 

 Tire on the flesh of me and of my son ! " 



But hungry eagles tire as little as the vulture, of which 

 Michelet says : " lis mangent un hippotame et ils restent 

 affames. . . . Rien ne fait lacher le vautour; sur le corps 



