260 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare's Time. 
lighted in the room, they feed night and day, and when they are at 
their height of fatness they begin to grow lame, and are then hilled, as- 
at their prime and apt to decline.” (Yol. iv. p. 140). 
The knot is mentioned by Drayton :— 
“ The knot, that called was Canutus’ bird of old, 
Of that great king of Danes, his name that still doth hold, 
His appetite to please, that far and near was sought, 
For him, as some have said, from Denmark hither brought.” 
( PolyoTbion , song xxv.) 
Dn Bartas (p. 45) speaks of— 
“ The little gnat-snap, worthy princes’ boords.” 
And his commentator adds, “ This is the fig-pecker, which 
the Latines call ficedula, and scalis, very delicious 
(Learned Summary on Du Bartas , p. 235). 
“ The puet, Godwit, stint, the palate that allure 
The miser, and do make the wasteful epicure.” 
(.Polyolbion , song xxv.) 
Sir Thomas Browne accounts the godwit the daintiest 
bird taken in England, and, for its size, the 
biggest price. According to this author the 
stint was found plentifully in Marshland, in Norfolk; also 
the shurr, or purre, a bird “ somewhat larger than stints,, 
and taken among them.” The purre, or perr, was 
another name for the dunlin, the commonest of the shore - 
frequenting sandpipers. 
In the palmy days of water-loving birds, and those 
species that delighted in heathy open country,. 
Plovers must have been found in great abun¬ 
dance. Drayton tells us that in the marshy lands about 
Axholme, in Lincolnshire, plovers were plentiful:— 
Godwit. 
Plover. 
: For neare this batning isle in me is to be seen 
More than on any earth, the plover, gray, and green.” 
(. PolyoTbion , song xxv.) 
