NOTES BY THE WAY. 191 



the grub ; how the fox carries the goose ; where the 

 squirrel hides his store ; where the martlet builds its 

 nest, etc. 



"Now is the woodcock near the gin," 



says Fabian, in " Twelfth Night," and 



" Stalk on, stalk on ; the fowl sits," 

 says Qlaudio to Leonato, in " Much Ado." 



"Instruct thee how 

 To snare the nimble marmozet," 



says Caliban, in " The Tempest." Sings the fool in 

 "Lear": 



"The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long 

 That it had its head bit off by its young." 



The hedge-sparrow is one of the favorite birds upon 

 which the European cuckoo imposes the rearing of 

 its young. If Shakespeare had made the house-spar- 

 row, or the blackbird, or the bunting, or any of the 

 graniferous, hard-billed birds, the foster-parent of the 

 cuckoo, his natural history would have been at fault. 

 Shakespeare knew the flowers, too, and knew their 

 times and seasons : 



"When daisies pied, and violets blue, 

 And lady smocks all silver-white, 

 And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, 

 Do paint the meadows with delight.' 1 



They have, in England, the cuckoo-flower, which 

 comes in April and is lilac in color, and the cuckoo- 

 pint, which is much like our " Jack in the pulpit " ; 

 but the poet does not refer to either of these (if he 



