224 . SHAKESPEARE’S [OTTER. 
Some reasonless creatures likewise are by nature bold, as 
Ostriches. Helland’s Pliny, bk. xi. ch. xxxvii. 
Tue Ostrich has a small bone under its wings, by which 
it purges itself in the side, and shakes it when it is pro- 
voked to anger. It has a very strong skin, by which with 
its feathers it is protected from the troublesome cold. 
Hortus Sanitatis, bk. iii. § 109-10. 
Sir Gosling -—Sing or howl, or Tl break your Ostrich 
egg-shell there. 
Birdlime :—My egg hurts not you. 
[Birdlime is an elderly lady with not the best of 
characters. | Webster, « Westward Ho!” v. 3. 
[Osrricu] a foolish bird that forgetteth his nest, and 
leaveth his eggs for the sun and sand to hatch, that eateth 
any thing, even the hardest iron, that heareth nothing. 
Purchas’ Pilgrims,” p. 560 (ed. 1616). 
Otter. 
Neither fish nor flesh. 
i. Kinc Henry IV., iii. 3, 142-4, 
TuHere is no doubt but this beast is of the kind of 
beavers, saving in their tail, for the tail of a beaver is fish, 
but the tail of an Otter is flesh, It hath very sharp teeth, 
and is a very biting beast. So great is the sagacity and 
sense of smelling in this beast, that he can directly wind 
the fishes in the water a mile or two off. There is a kind 
of Assa called Benjoin, a strong herb, which, being hung 
in a linen cloth near fish-ponds, driveth away all Otters 
and beavers. The skin doth not lose its beauty by age, 
and no rain can hurt it, and is sold for seven or eight 
shillings ; thereof they make fringes in hems of garments, 
and face about the collars of men and women’s garments, 
and the skin of the Otter is far more precious than the 
skin of the beaver. Topsell, “ Four-footed Beasts,” s.v. 
I mMarvet how it came into the writer’s head to affirm 
that the beaver constraineth the Otter in the winter-time 
to trouble the water about her tail to ‘the intent it may not 
freeze. Lbid. 
