416 The Zoologist— October, 1866. 



Note. The old copy omits " elvish," but the folio, 1632, has " elves," 

 which Rowe changed to " elvish." 



" Where the bee sucks, there lurk I ; 

 In a cowslip's bell I lie ; 

 There I couch when owls do cry." 



Tempest, Act v. Scene I. 



lu making my last extract vrith reference to the owl, I cannot do 

 better than conclude with the quaint and characteristic song in ' Love's 

 Labour Lost.' 



I. 

 " When icicles hang by the wall, 



And Dick the shepherd blows his nail. 

 And Tom bears logs into the hall. 



And milk conies frozen home in pail ; 

 When blood is nippM and ways be foul, 

 Then nightly sings the staring owl, 



To-who, 

 Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note. 

 While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 



II. 

 When all aloud the wind doth blow. 



And coughing drowns the parson's saw, 

 And birds sit brooding in the snow, 



And Marian's nose looks red and raw ; 

 When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, 

 Then nightly sings the staring owl, 



To-who, 

 To-wbit, to-who, a merry note. 

 While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." 



Thrush {Turdus musicus). 



It is somewhat singular that, after so many allusions to the owl, we 

 now come to an equally well-known bird, the thrush, and yet we can 

 only find three passages in the whole of the Plays wherein this bird is 

 mentioned. 



It occurs once in ' A Winter's Tale ' (Act. iv. Scene 2), once iu 

 ' Midsummer Night's Dream' (Act iii. Scene 1), where Bottom, the 

 weaver, in a doggrel rhyme, sings of 



" The throstle with his uote so true." 



