Preface 
availed myself of this volume had I known 
of it sooner, but I gleaned from it a few 
quotations which in my search through 
the Poems and Plays I had missed. My 
object, however, was somewhat different 
from that author’s. Approaching the 
subject from the literary rather than the 
scientific side, I desired to show that 
Shakespeare’s delight in birds and _ bird- 
music was not less keen than that of 
Chaucer and the earlier poets, and at the 
same time to point out how detailed was 
his acquaintance with birds, and how wide 
the range of similitudes which he drew 
from them to the great enrichment of 
our literature. [I have ventured also to 
illustrate the change of poetic mood since 
his time in regard to Nature by citing 
three poems on Birds by three of the great 
poets of last century. 
The Cambridge Shakespeare of W. Aldis 
Wright is the text from which my cita- 
tions are made. I have to thank Messrs. 
vil 
