418 The Zoologist — October, 1866. 



In * The Tempest ' (Act iv. Scene 1) we are told that Cupid 



" Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows, 

 And be a boy right out." 



" There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow." 



Hamlet, Act v. Scene 2. 



" And He that doth the ravens feed, 

 Yea, providently cater for the sparrow. 

 Be comfort to my age." 



As You Like It, Act ii. Scene 3. 



Robin Redbreast {Sylvia ruhecula). 



" With fairest flowers 

 Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 

 I'll sweeten thy sad grave : thou shall not lack 

 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, or 

 The azur'd harebell like thy veins ; no, nor 

 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander 

 Outsweeten'd not thy breath : the ruddock* would 

 With charitable bill (0 bill, sore shaming 

 Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie 

 Without a monument) bring thee all this ; 

 Yea, and fur'd moss besides, when flowers are none, 

 To winter ground thy corse." 



Cymheline, Act iv. Scene 2. 



Bishop Percy asks, " Is this an allusion to the ' Babes in the Wood'? 

 or was the notion of the redbreast covering dead bodies general before 

 the writing of that ballad ? " 



Mr. Knight says, " There is no doubt that it was an old popular 

 belief, and the notion has been found in an earlier book of Natural 

 History." 



Isaak Walton, in his ' Compleat Angler,' written in 1653, speaks of 

 " the honest robin that loves mankind both alive and dead." 



Instead of " winter ground," in the last line, Mr. Collier's annotator 

 reads " winter guard," but " to winter ground " appears to have been 

 a technical term for protecting a plant from the frost by laying straw, 

 &c., over it. 



* The ruddock is an an old name for the redbreast, and is still used in some parts 

 of the country. 



" The ruddock warbles soft." — Spenser's Epilhalamium, 1, 82. 



