PREFACE. 



/^VF no other author, perhaps, has more been written 

 than of Shakespeare. Yet whatever other knowledge 

 his commentators professed, few of them appear to have 

 been naturalists, and none, so far as I am aware, have 

 examined his knowledge of Ornithology. 



An inquiry upon this subject, undertaken in the first 

 instance for my own amusement, has resulted in the 

 bringing together of so much that is curious and enter- 

 taining, that to the long list of books already published 

 about Shakespeare, I have been bold enough to add yet 

 another. In so doing, I venture to hope that the reader 

 may so far appreciate the result of my labour as not to 

 consider it superfluous. 



As regards the treatment of the subject, a word or two 

 of explanation seems necessary. In 1866, from the notes 

 I had then collected, I contributed a series of articles on 

 the birds of Shakespeare to The Zoologist. In these 

 articles, I referred only to such birds as have a claim to be 

 considered British, and omitted all notice of domesticated 



