THE THROSTLE. 
37 
It is somewhat singular that the Thrush ( Turdus musicus), 
a bird as much famed for song as either the nightingale or 
the lark, has been so little noticed by Shakespeare. We 
have failed to discover more than three passages in the 
entire works of our great poet in which this well-known 
bird is mentioned. It is referred to once in A Winter s 
Tale (Act iv. Sc. 2) ; once in Midsummer Night's Dream y 
Act iii. Sc. I, where Bottom the weaver, in a doggrel 
rhyme, sings of— 
“The throstle, with his note so true 
and once again in The Merchant of Venice (Act i. Sc. 2), 
where Portia, speaking of the French Lord Le Bon, and 
alluding to his national propensity for a dance on every 
available opportunity, remarks that— 
“ If a throstle sing, he falls straight a-capering.” 
Many naturalists, who have paid particular attention to 
the song of the thrush, have insisted upon its taking 
equal rank as a songster with the more favoured nightin¬ 
gale. Certain it is, that the notes of this bird, although 
not so varied, nor so liquid, so to say, as those of 
Philomel, are yet of a clear, rich tone, and have some¬ 
thing indescribably sweet about them. “ Listen,” says 
Macgillivray, “to the clear, loud notes of that speckled 
warbler, that in the softened sunshine pours forth his 
T 
