Birds. 1539 



The hyoid apparatus is formed of three bones ; the inferior one of 

 which is large, and has two lateral processes directed backwards, 

 posteriorly, and a notch on the anterior margin ; on each side of this 

 notch are fastened the two other rather slender and lengthened 

 bones. 



The ischionian bones, which were suspended in the flesh, were very 

 small, relatively to the size of the animal. 



This short notice has been written less to establish any important 

 fact in science, than to attract the attention of British naturalists in 

 general to a subject which still leaves much for new observers to 

 study. I hope that some able person, having more leisure time at his 

 disposal than I have, will undertake the revisal of the entire genus 

 Baleinoptera ; and it is simply the wish of facilitating his researches 

 that has induced me to head this paper with a list of the works which 

 have fallen under my notice, the knowledge of which will be indis- 

 pensable to his labours. 



Julian Deby. 



Notes on some of the Birds mentioned in Shakspeare's Plays. 

 By T. Worthington Barlow, Esq. 



The interest excited by the papers on " The Reptiles mentioned in 

 Shakspeare's Plays," by Mr. Patterson, which appeared in the 1st 

 and 2nd volumes of the * Zoologist,' induced me to pen the following 

 remarks on the birds mentioned in the same plays, which I hope may 

 be thought worthy of a place in the 'Zoologist,' and prove not uninte- 

 resting to its readers, as exhibiting some of the superstitions relating to 

 birds prevalent in the days of Shakspeare. 



The Eagle, from his undoubted position at the head of the feathered 

 race, first demands our notice. 



As in the present day, he appears to have been regarded as the per- 

 sonification of all that is noble and generous ; accordingly we find 

 him described in ' Henry the 6th,' as 



" The princely eagle." 



And again we have the ardent looks of lovers not unaptly compared 

 to the piercing gaze of " the bird of Heaven." 



"A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind," — {Love's Labour Lost). 



