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INTRODUCTION. 



Apart from the consideration that a poet may be 

 expected, almost of necessity, to invoke the birds of song, 

 Shakespeare has gone further, and displays a greater 

 knowledge of ornithology, and a greater accuracy in his 

 statements, than is generally the case with poets. How 

 far we shall succeed in proving this assertion, it will be for 

 the reader of the following pages to determine. 



