PREFACE. IX 



space he has mentioned barely one-fourth of the species 

 to which Shakespeare has referred. From the cursory 

 nature of his remarks, moreover, I failed to discover 

 a reference to any point which I had not already inves- 

 tigated. It would be unnecessary for me, therefore, to 

 allude to this article, except for the purpose of acknow- 

 ledging that Mr. Barlow was the first to enter upon what, 

 as regards Shakespeare, may be termed this new field 

 of research. 



The labour of collecting and arranging Shakespeare's 

 numerous allusions to birds, has been much greater than 

 many would suppose, for not only have I derived little or 

 no benefit from the various editions of his works which 

 I have consulted, but reference to a glossarial index, or 

 concordance, has, in nine cases out of ten, resulted in dis- 

 appointment. It is due to Mr. Staunton, however, to 

 state that I have found some of the foot-notes to his 

 library edition of the Plays very useful. 



Although oft-times difficult, it has been my endeavour, 

 as far as practicable, to connect one with another the 

 various passages quoted or referred to, so as to render the 

 whole as readable and as entertaining as possible. With 

 this view, many allusions have been passed over as being 

 too trivial to deserve separate notice, but a reference to 

 them will be found in the Appendix at the end of the 

 volume,* where all the words quoted are arranged, for 



* Such words are there enclosed in brackets [ ]. 



b 



