PEPACTON 



He had a poacher's knowledge of the wild creatures. 

 He knew how fresh the snake appears after it has 

 cast its skin; how the hedgehog makes himself up 

 into a ball 'and leaves his "prickles" in whatever 

 touches him; how the butterfly comes from 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 Claudio 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 it head bit off by it 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 

 sparrow, or the blackbird, or the bunting, or any of 

 the granivorous, 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 : 

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