OF HERBS AND BEASTS 195 



with the same plant. Stock-doves, jays, merles, black- 

 birds and ousels recover " their appetite to meate," 

 by eating bay leaves ; and ducks, geese and other 

 waterfowl seek endive or chicory. Of course, chick- 

 weed and goosegrass have gained their names as 

 the result of similar observations, more modern, and 

 possibly more accurate. Elder-berries are eaten by 

 birds, but they are said to have serious effects on 

 chickens. 



Lizards cure themselves of the biting of serpents with 

 calaminth, and the tortoise cautiously eats a "kind of 

 sauorie or marjerome" before the battle. Sir Francis 

 Bacon mentions that, " the snake loveth fennel ; that the 

 toad will be much under sage ; that frogs will be in 

 cinquefoil " ; though he unromantically doubts that the 

 virtue of these herbs is the cause of these preferences. 

 Turner also remarks on the toad's liking for sage, and 

 says: "Rue is good to be planted among Sage, to 

 prevent the poison which may be in it by toads fre- 

 quenting amongst it, but Rue being amongst it they 

 will not come near it." A toad recovers itself by means 

 of the plantain from the poison of the spider, and 

 BuUein ^ tells us of the frog's fondness for the Scabiosa, 

 under whose leaves they will " shadow themselves from 

 the heate of the dale, poppyng and plaiying under these 

 leaves, which to them is a pleasant Tent or Pavillion." 

 The reputed venom of toads was sometimes said to be 

 sucked from camomile, of all plants ! 



Pliny wrote of the serpent, that waking in the 

 spring, she finds that during the winter her sight 

 has become " dim and dark, so that with the herbe 

 Fennell she comforteth and anointeth her eies," and 

 having cast her coat, " appeareth fresh, sUck and yong 

 again." 



If camomile furnishes venom for toads, it seems to 



1 Eullein'a '■ Eulwaike ; or, Booke of Simples," 1562. 



