The Birds of Shakespeare 
Scott in O/d Mortality. I have myself 
attended the summer festival of the 
“ Papingo”’ at Kilwinning where it is said 
to have been held ever since 1488. The 
stuffed bird is there suspended from the 
end of a pole fastened on the steeple at a 
height of 100 feet from the ground. 
The osTRICH Or ESTRIDGE was doubtless 
an unfamiliar bird in England in the reign 
of Elizabeth, though its feathers were in 
repute. When Hotspur asked after “the 
nimble-footed, madcap Prince of Wales ” 
and his comrades, he was told by Sir 
Richard Vernon that they were 
All furnished, all in arms ; 
All plumed, like estridges that with the wind 
Baited like eagles having lately bathed, 
Glittering in golden coats, like images.} 
Among the marvels told of this bird, it 
had the credit of digesting iron for the 
sake of its health. This reputation is 
alluded to in Jack Cade’s defiance in Iden’s 
La Heary 1V ave 1.97. 
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