THE " RUSSET-PATED CHOUGH " OF SHAKESPEARE. 4ll 



proving that russet = gray, it will be sufficient to quote Cotgrave 

 [1611], who gives under * Gris : gray, \\ght-russet, grizle, ash- 

 coloured,' &c." 



In Mr. Marshall's first communication to 'Notes and Queries' 

 (vol. ix. p. 345), he says : — " That Shakespeare in this passage 

 meant the Jackdaw I think there can be very little doubt. In 

 fact, I doubt very much if the word 'Chough' is ever used by 

 Shakespeare for anything but Jackdaw. Certainly, in the well- 

 known passage in ' Lear,' ' the crows and choughs that wing the 

 midway air' (iv. 6), there is some reason for thinking that Shake- 

 speare meant red-legged crows ; for that this bird was found on 

 Dover Cliff at a period later than Shakespeare's time we know on 

 the evidence of Pennant, quoted by Yarrell, who gives Beachy 

 Head and the Isle of Wight as localities. But there is no reason 

 why ' Chough' should not mean 'Jackdaw' even in that passage ; 

 for there must have been plenty of Jackdaws on Dover Cliff in the 

 time of Shakespeare, and there might not have been any red- 

 legged crows there at all. Had he applied the epithet 'red-legged' 

 to Choughs in any of the passages in which the word occurs we 

 should have known that he meant the Cornish Chough.'' After 

 specifying the passages referred to, he concludes : — " I think 

 there can be no reasonable doubt that, in all these passages, by 

 'Chough' Shakespeare means the Jackdaw, and not the red- 

 legged Crow." 



In Mr. Marshall's second communication to ' Notes and 

 Queries' (vol. ix. p. 470), after acknowledging the perusal of 

 Prof. Newton's view (torn. cit. p. 396), he remarks :—" With all 

 due respect, I must entirely repudiate such a reading as russet- 

 patted. In the first place, there is no such word as patted, and 

 I do not believe that Shakespeare would have invented it for this 

 occasion, as it was utterly unnecessary to do so. In the next 

 place, under no possible circumstances could russet-patted fairly 

 be held to be a synonym for red-legged." He proceeds to give 

 some instances of the use of the word russet in the sense of gray, 

 amongst others the following : — 



" And al-so glad of a goune of grey russet." 



Piers Plowman, p. 280 [C. Passus, xvii. 298]. 

 And 



" Also aboute thys tyme the gray Fryers were compelled to take 

 theyr old habit russet as the shepe doth dye it." 



Fabyan's Chronicle, p. 687. 



