236 A FLIGHT OF FOWL. 



at another — 



" A flight of fowl 



Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts." 



Titus Andronicus, Act v. Sc. 3. 



Anon the scene changes, and leaving the green fields of 



which Falstaff " babbled," and the " great pool " with 



its " swan's nest " {Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4), we are 



led to— 



" That pale, that whitefaced shore, 



Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides." 



King Joint, Act ii. Sc. 1 ; 



there to contemplate " the sea-mells " on the rock 

 {Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 2), or watch the movements of the 

 " insatiate cormorant " (Richard II Act ii. Sc. 1). 



Nor are we left entirely to our own reflections in these 

 situations. Some trait or other is noticed in the habits 

 of the bird alluded to, some curious instinct pointed out. 

 We pause insensibly to admire the appropriate haunts in 

 which the poet has discovered the fowl, and carry out 

 with him, in thought, the crafty device of the fowler to 

 which a passing allusion is made. 



Naturalists have frequently observed that when any of 

 the diving-ducks are winged or injured, they generally 

 make for the open water, and endeavour to escape by 

 diving or swimming away, while those which do not 

 excel in diving, usually make for the shore when wounded, 

 and, as Shakespeare tells us, " creep into sedges." 



