142 THE WREN WITH LITTLE QUILL. 
courting the female. So, when Valentine asks Speed, 
“How know you that Iam in love?’ he gives, amongst 
other reasons, that he had learnt “to relish a love-song 
like a robin-redbreast.”— Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. 
Se. I. 
The meaning of the following dialogue does not seem 
quite clear :— 
“ Hotspur. Come, sing. 
Lady Percy. I will not sing. 
Flotspur. ’Tis the next way to turn tailor or be 
redbreast teacher.” 
flenry IV. Part I. Act iti, Sc. 1, 
Possibly the allusion may be to the “ recorder,” by which 
instrument birds were taught to sing* Hotspur pays a 
high compliment to the vocal powers of Lady Percy by 
insinuating that her voice would excel the recorder; and 
as the bird most frequently taught to pipe is the bullfinch, 
it is not improbable that this was the bird intended under 
the title of “redbreast,” and not the robin. 
Intimately associated with the robin, as we have before 
remarked, is— 
“The wren, with little quill.” 
Midsummer Night's Dream—Song. 
It must often have struck others, as it has us, that for 
so small a throat, the wren has a wonderfully loud song, 
* See ante, p. 129. 
