TUCK: THE ORNITHOLOGY OF TENNYSON. 45 
burst into a chorus of cries, which, floating downwards on the still, 
frosty air, had every possible resemblance to the music of a pack of 
foxhounds in full cry—sounds which have doubtless given rise to 
the legend, common in some form or other to all the northern races 
of the demon huntsman and his infernal pack.’ 
One other passage from ‘Princess Ida’ may be quoted, referring 
to the self-destruction of migratory birds against the glass of 
a lighthouse, a subject to which the Lincolnshire ornithologist 
mentioned above and others have devoted much careful attention 
of late years, though at the time (1847) that ‘In Memoriam’ was 
first published it had been little thought of. 
Fixt like a beacon-tower above the waves 
Of tempest, when the crimson-rolling eye 
Glares ruin, and the wild birds on the light 
Dash themselves dea ri 
Boadicea, anticipating the avenging of her wrongs, calls on the 
carnivorous birds to gather around the corpses of her Roman foes: 
k an answer, gpa gered Bp and blacken onc aT 
eidetan round the Roman ca make the carcase a skeleton, 
Kite and kestrel, om and wolfkin, from the wilderness, wallow in it. 
Very fresh bya hie and breezy is ‘The Window, or the Song 
of the Wrens he accepted lover, rejoicing in the arrival of 
a letter containing a answer he has longed for, but hardly ventured 
to expect, calls on all the birds to share his joy: 
Be merry, all birds, to-day, 
merry on earth as you never were merry before, 
Be merry in heaven, O larks, and far away, 
And merry for ever and ever and one day more. 
Why? 
For it’s easy to find a rhyme. 
Look, look, how he bigs 
The fire-crowned king of the wrens, sy of the pine! 
Look how tly femtie the blossom, the ad little tits ! 
‘Cuckoo! cuckoo!’ was ever a May so ? 
For it’s easy to find a rhyme. 
~ merry the linnet and dove 
And swallow and sparrow and throstles, and have your desire ! 
O merry, my hea A yin. ate e gotten the wings of love 
And flit like the king of the wrens with a crown of fire. 
Why? 
For it’s ay, ay, ay, ay. 
Neither ‘In Memoriam’ nor ‘Maud’ contain much especially 
attractive to the ornithologist. The former has allusions to the 
linnet, the lark, and to ‘the distant sea’ ; 
w the seamew bm tl or dives 
glea 
In ran ie greening g 
Feb. 1893. 
