258 SHAKESPEARE'S [RED-BREAST. 



And they have many birds, and, for they be many, they 

 throw away some of their birds, for fowls which have 

 many birds throw away some of them. Also the black 

 Raven fighteth with the ass, and with the bull, and flieth 

 upon them, and grieveth them, and smiteth with the bill, 

 and smiteth out their eyes. Also the black Raven is friend 

 to the fox, and therefore he fighteth with the brock and 

 with other small beasts to help the fox. 



Bartholomew (Bertbelet), bk. xii. 10. 



THEY are said to conceive and to lay their eggs at the 

 bill. The young become black on the seventh day. The 

 Raven is stronger by day, and the owl by night, and they 

 eat one another's eggs by turns. It abstains from drinking 

 so long as the fig-tree rejoices in the sweetness of its fruit. 



Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii. 34. 



IF women great with child chance to eat a Raven's egg, 

 they shall be delivered of their children at the mouth. 



Holland's Pliny, bk. x. ch. xii. 



IF a Raven's eggs be boiled and put again in the nest, 

 straightway the Raven goes to a certain island in the Red 

 Sea, where Aldoricus or Alodrius is buried, and brings a 

 stone with which it touches its eggs, and immediately they 

 become raw as they were before. It is wonderful that 

 boiled eggs should be revived. Now if that stone be set 

 in a ring with a laurel-leaf under it, and a man bound 

 with chains, or a closed gate be touched [therewith], 

 straightway the bound shall be loosed, and the gate be 

 opened. And if that stone be put in the ear, it gives 

 understanding of all birds. This stone is of diverse colours, 

 and causes all anger to be forgotten. 



Albertus Magnus, " Of the Virtues of Animals." 



Red-breast, Robin Redbreast. 



Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, ii. I, 22. 



THE bird which is named Robin or Redbreast in winter, 

 the same is Red-tail [or Red-start] all summer long. 



Hollands Pliny, bk. x. ch. xxix. So Minsbeits Dictionary, 



s.v. Robin-redbreast and Red-start. 



