ZOOLOGY IN TIME OF SHAKESPEARE 239 



ance of the subject he displays in his writings, 

 we shall find that he had just that knowledge 

 which a quick, observant, intelligent man of the 

 world who has not paid special attention to the 

 matter would pick up in the course of his up- 

 bringing and of his career. We have the feeling 

 that he is describing what he saw, and that he is 

 copying nature as far as he knew it without 

 attempted emendation or improvement. His out- 

 look on the world is always steady and sane. 



A large number of books and a very large 

 number of articles have been written about the 

 " Birds of Shakespeare/' " Reptiles mentioned 

 in Shakespeare's Plays, 1 ' " The Natural History 

 of Shakespeare " etc., etc. On an inspection of 

 these writings it seems that their authors have 

 a common desire to exalt our greatest dramatist 

 at the expense of what must have been the truth. 

 Novelists and writers of plays constantly put 

 into the mouths of their creations remarks which 

 in their judgment the speaker would utter under 

 certain circumstances and at certain times. The 

 fact that Hero refers to the lapwing and Bottom 

 to the ousel is no proof that Shakespeare was a 

 trained ornithologist. I should profoundly mis- 

 trust George Eliot's diagnosis of a species of land 



