32 EAGLE'S EGGS. 



Sometimes the word was written "accloy;" as, for in- 

 stance, in Spenser's " Faerie Queene " (ii. 7) 



" And with uncomely weeds the gentle wave accloyes" 



And in the same author's " Shepheard's Calendar" (Feb- 

 ruary," 135)- 



"The mouldie mosse which thee accloy eth" 



It is clear, therefore, that the word occurring in the 

 fourth scene of the fifth act of Cymbeline, should be written 

 cleys, and not cloys. 



But to return from this digression ; there is a passage in 

 the first act of Henry V. Sc. 2, which seems to deserve 

 some notice while on the subject of eagles, i. e. : 



" For once the eagle England being in prey, 

 To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 

 Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs." 



That the weasel sucks eggs, and is partial to such fare, 

 is very generally admitted. Shakespeare alludes to the 

 fact again in As You Like It (Act ii. Sc. 5), where 

 Jaques says : " I can suck melancholy out of a song, as 

 a weasel sucks eggs." But whether the weasel has ever 

 been found in the same situation or at such an altitude as 

 the eagle, is not so certain. A near relative of the weasel, 

 however, namely, a marten-cat, was once found in an 

 eagle's nest. " The forester, having reason to think that 

 the bird was sitting hard, peeped over the cliff into the 



