NOTES BY THE WAY 



"Celia. Here comes Monsieur Le Beau. 

 "Rosalind. With his mouth full of news. 

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

 young. 



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



When the mother pigeon feeds her young she brings 

 the food, not in her beak like other birds, but in her 

 crop; she places her beak between the open mandi- 

 bles of her young, and fairly crams the food, which 

 is delivered by a peculiar pumping movement, 

 down its throat. She furnishes a capital illustra- 

 tion of the eager, persistent newsmonger. 



" Out of their burrows like rabbits after rain " is 

 a comparison that occurs in " Coriolanus." In our 

 Northern or New England States we should have to 

 substitute woodchucks for rabbits, as our rabbits 

 do not burrow, but sit all day in their forms under 

 a bush or amid the weeds, and as they are not seen 

 moving about after a rain, or at all by day; but in 

 England Shakespeare's line is exactly descriptive. 



Says Bottom to the fairy Cobweb in "Midsum- 

 mer Night's Dream : " 



" Mounsieur Cobweb ; good mounsieur, get you your 

 weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipp'd humble- 

 bee on the top of a thistle, and, good mounsieur, bring me 

 the honey-bag." 



This command might be executed in this country, 



for we have the " red-hipp'd humble-bee ; " and we 



185 



