The Zoologist — October, 1866. 417 



And in ' The Merchant of Venice ' (Act i. Scene 2), Portia, speaking 

 of the French lord. Monsieur Le Bon, tells us that 



" If a throstle sing he falls straight a-capering." 



Blackbird [Turdus merula). 



When Justice Shallow, in the Play of ' King Henry VI.', asks Jus- 

 tice Silence, " And how doth my cousin ? " he is answered, " Alas ! a 

 black ouzel, cousin Shallow ! " an expression which was probably 

 used as we now-a-days use the term " a black sheep." 



With the exception of this passage, there is but one allusion to the 

 blackbird throughout the Plays, and this occurs in ' Midsummer Night's 

 Dream.' 



" The ouzel-cock, so black of hue, 

 With orange-tawny bill." 



Song, Midsummer Night^s Dream, Act iii. Scene 1. 



Hedge Sparrow [Accentor modularis). 



" The sparrow." 



Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. Scene 1. 



" You know, Nuncle, 

 The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long 

 That it had its head bit off by its young." 



King Lear, Act 1. Scene 4. 



Mr. Guest (Phil. Pro. i. 280) has observed that in the dialects of the 

 North Western counties, formerly it was sometimes used for its. So, 

 in * Lear,' Act i. Scene 4, we have, in a speech of the Fool, " For you 

 know," &c., " that its had it head bit off by it young," that is, that it 

 has had its head, not that it had its head, as the modern editors give 

 the passage, after the Second Folio, in which it stands, " that it had 

 its head bit off by its young." So likewise, long before its was gene- 

 rally received, we have it self commonly printed in two words, evi- 

 dently under the impression that it was a possessive, of the same 

 syntactical force with the pronouns in my self, your self, her self. 

 (' The English of Shakespeare,' &c., by G. L. Craik ; quoted by Mr. 

 Staunton). 



So, in ' Timon of Athens ' (Act v. Scene 1), we read, 



" The public body, * * * 

 * * * feeling in itself 

 A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal 

 Of it own fall." 

 SECOND SERIES — VOL. I. 3 H 



