The Golden Oriole. 
183 
Woodivele, the name of a bird, occurs occasionally in 
medieval poetry. Chaucer writes:— 
“ In many places were nyghtyngales, 
Alpes, fynch.es, and wodewales, 
That in her swete song deliten 
In thilke places as they habiten.” 
{The Romaunt of the Rose , ed. Bell.) 
The woodwele is explained by Percy, in his Beliques of 
English Poetry, to be the oriole. We find the name again 
in the ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne:— 
“ The woodweele sang and wolde not cease, 
Sitting upon the spray, 
So lowde he wakened Robin Hood, 
In the greenwood where he lay.” 
The oriole is said to prefer fruit when it can be procured, 
but failing this it is not above eating insects. Thomas 
Muflett, in his Healths Improvement (p. 100), informs us 
that “ witwols are of excellent good nourishment, feeding 
upon bees, flies, snails, cherries, plums, and all manner of 
good fruit.” It may be that this beautiful bird was less 
rare in former times than it is at present. 
Mr. Harting gives the derivation of Magpie from magot- 
pie; another explanation of the name of 
this bird is that magot is the French for a 
hoard of secreted money, and may have been bestowed 
in consequence of the magpie’s hiding propensities. 
Another is that mag, a contraction of Margaret, is a 
nickname corresponding to robin redbreast, or tom tit¬ 
mouse. Skelton speaks of “ the flecked pye.” 
Next we have— 
Crow. 
“ The caryon crowe, that lothsome beast, 
Which cries against the rayne, 
Both for hir hewe and for ther rest, 
The devil resembleth playne. 5 * 
(Gascoigne, Good-morrow?) 
