DEER.] NATURAL HISTORY. 83 



Daw. 



I am no wiser than a daw. 



i. KING HENRY VI., ii. 4, 18. 



THE Daw fights with the owl, because the owl has but 

 weak sight by day ; for this reason the Daw carries off 

 the owl's eggs and eats them. Its flesh causes itching in 

 the head, for itself loves to be scratched on the head. 



It is said to go mad often ; so that it often hangs itself 

 in the forked branches of trees. 



Hortus Sanitatis, bk. ii. chs. Ixxx. and Iv. 



Dead Men's Fingers. 



Long purples 



That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, 

 But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. 



HAMLET, iv. 7, 171. 



[Dead Men's Fingers is the Orchis mascula, or, as Gerard 

 calls it, Satyrion Royal or finger orchis ; the plant has this 

 name from the shape and colour of the root.] 



Deer. 



LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, iv. 2, 3 et seq. 





THE most excellent of all animals. 



Minsbtu's Dictionary, s.v. 



Cf. Hart. 



IN the blood of these kind of Deer [Fallow-Deer] are 

 not strings or fibres, wherefore it doth not congeal as other 



*doth, and this is assigned to be one cause of their fearful 

 nature ; they are also said to have no gall. Their blood 

 doth increase above measure melancholy. The dung or fime 

 of this beast, mingled with oil of myrtles, increaseth hair, 

 and amendeth those which are corrupt. Some of the late 

 writers do prescribe the fat of a mole, of a Deer, and of 

 a bear, mingled together to rub the head withal for increase 

 of memory. Topsell, " Four-footed Beasts," p. 90. 



' 



