The Birds of Shakespeare 
The ospREY, now almost extirpated as a 
native of these islands, was probably not 
uncommon in the time of Elizabeth. It is 
once mentioned by Shakespeare. Aufidius, 
the General of the Volscians, alluding to 
the regard of the Roman people for the 
banished Coriolanus, reluctantly confesses : 
I think he’ll be to Rome 
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it 
By sovereignty of nature,’ 
It would almost seem that the poet had 
himself watched the bird plunge into some 
clear lake or pond in southern England, 
and, with unerring stroke, seize in its talons 
the unsuspecting fish which its keen eyes 
had detected from aloft. 
The vuLTuRE, not infrequently men- 
tioned by Shakespeare, is not a British 
bird, though at rare intervals it has appeared 
as a migrant in this country. The poet 
most likely never saw one, his allusions to it 
being obviously based on its reputation for 
1 Coriolanus, 1. Vil. 33. 
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