168 PEPACTON 



position to clasp him firmly. The British poacher 

 takes the jack by the same tactics: he tickles the 

 jack on the belly ; the fish slowly rises in the water 

 till it comes near the surface, when, the poacher 

 having insinuated both hands under him, he is sud- 

 denly scooped out and thrown upon the land. 



Indeed, Shakespeare seems to have known inti- 

 mately the ways and habits of most of the wild 

 creatures of Britain. He had the kind of know- 

 ledge of them that only the countryman has. In 

 " As You Like It, " Jaques tells Amiens : — 

 "I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs." 



Every gamekeeper, and every farmer for that 

 matter, knows how destructive the weasel and its 

 kind are to birds' eggs, and to the eggs of game- 

 birds and of domestic fowls. 



In "Love's Labor's Lost," Biron says of 

 Boyet : — 



" This fellow picks up wit as pigeons peas." 



Pigeons do not pick up peas in this country, but 

 they do in England, and are often very damaging 

 to the farmer on that account. Shakespeare knew 

 also the peculiar manner in which they fed their 

 young, — a manner that has perhaps given rise to 

 the expression "sucking dove." In "As You Like 

 It " is this passage : — 



" Celia. Here comes Monsieur Le Beau. 



^^ Rosalind. With his mouth full of news. 



" Celia. Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young. 



^^ Rosalind. Then shall we be news-crammed." 



When the mother pigeon feeds her young she brings 



