258 Bird -Lore 



rare aviaries of the time, or perhaps only by description. The Eagle was sup- 

 posed to renew its youth by bathing (a notion in part suggested by the English 

 translation of Psalm ciii:5: "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's") and also 

 to be the only bird able to gaze straight at the sun, having "eye-sight so cleare 

 that in her flying she spies the smallest beast that ever runne." Shakespeare 

 refers to this latter idea when he makes Richard say to his brother Edward: 



"Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird, 

 Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun," 



meaning to prove his royalty by such a test. In the few menageries or 'zoos' 

 of the time, Eagles are usually mentioned. In 1 598, The Tower of London 

 Menagerie consisted of three lionesses, one Hon 'of great size,' a tiger, a lynx, 

 an old wolf, a porcupine and an Eagle. All these creatures were kept "in a 

 remote place, fitted up for the purpose with wooden lattices, at the queen's 

 expense." As early as 1500, however, there was in Mexico a zoological garden 

 maintained by Montezuma at great expense. Here might be seen many kinds 

 of reptiles, birds and beasts. It was said that five hundred Cocks were fed 

 daily to the Eagles in this garden, and three hundred men were engaged in 

 caring for the birds. In addition, there were ponds for fresh- and salt-water 

 birds whose feathers were, at that early day, of commercial importance. 



The menus provided for royal and titled personages show that a variety 

 of birds were snared or otherwise killed for use on their tables, certain species 

 being used exclusively by them. Plover, Curlews, Godwit, Snipe, Woodcock, 

 Sandpipers and other wading birds were known and hunted, as well as water 

 fowl of many kinds. The Heron was considered a "great delicacy, and stood at 

 the head of the game course at every state banquet." But space forbids 

 further mention of the knowledge of birds in those days when conservation 

 was unknown and undreamed of. Shakespeare, like other poets and dramatists 

 of that great 'golden age' of literature, loved the feathered folk so well known 

 to him in boyhood, observed their habits from the credulous point of view of 

 the age, regarded hunting them as legitimate, and quite likely felt that he 

 had attained the most trustworthy account of species in remote parts of the 

 world, when travelers reported for example that the Ostrich hatched its eggs 

 "by the steadfast gaze of maternal affection," on the one hand, while on the 

 other, it ate and digested hard iron to preserve its health; or, that the Emeu 

 was a very greedy bird, "devouring everything it meets with, even to iron 

 and burning coal." 



If we compare the work of modern ornithologists with those of only 

 one century ago, we shall see how great an advance has been made in 

 observing correctly the activities of birds. That Shakespeare was not long 

 since outgrown is the wonder, as one critic has said, rather than that he has 

 so much of perennial freshness for all generations succeeding him. It is a 

 tribute to his fidelity to Nature that this is so true of him, and we can do no 



