236 A FLIGHT OF FOWL, 
at another— 
“ A flight of fowl 
Scatter’d by winds and high tempestuous gusts.” 
Titus Andronicus , Act v. Sc. 3. 
Anon the scene changes, and leaving the green fields of 
which Falstaff “ babbled,” and the “ great pool ” with 
its “ swan’s nest ” ( Cymbeline , Act iii. Sc. 4), we are 
led to— 
“ That pale, that whitefaced shore, 
Whose foot spurns back the ocean’s roaring tides.” 
King John, Act ii. Sc. 1 ; 
there to contemplate “ the sea-mells ” on the rock 
( Tempest , Act ii. Sc. 2), or watch the movements of the 
“ insatiate cormorant ” (Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1). 
Nor are we left entirely to our own reflections in these 
situations. Some trait or other is noticed in the habits 
of the bird alluded to, some curious instinct pointed out. 
We pause insensibly to admire the appropriate haunts in 
which the poet has discovered the fowl, and carry out 
with him, in thought, the crafty device of the fowler to 
which a passing allusion is made. 
Naturalists have frequently observed that when any of 
the diving-ducks are winged or injured, they generally 
make for the open water, and endeavour to escape by 
diving or swimming away, while those which do not 
excel in diving, usually make for the shore when wounded, 
and, as Shakespeare tells us, “ creep into sedges.” 
