IV.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw;
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,

Then nightly sings the staring owl,

To-who;

Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot."

Nor do we forget Ariel's song in The Tempest (Act v. Sc. 1)

"Where the bee sucks, there lurk I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie,

There I couch when owls do cry."

Amongst the fairies, at least, the owl seems to have found friends, and is generally represented as a companion in their moonlight gambols :

"This is the fairy land!-O, spite of spites!

We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites."

Comedy of Errors, Act ii. Sc. 2.

The folio of 1623 omits "elvish," but the folio of 1632 has "elves," which Rowe changed to "elvish."

The following quotation we have some hesitation in introducing, for there appears to be a difference of reading, which quite alters the sense :—

"No, rather, I abjure all roofs, and choose

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,

Necessity's sharp pinch."

King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4.

Mr. Collier, taking into consideration the last line, reads:

"To be a comrade with the wolf, and howl

Necessity's sharp pinch.”

And this seems more likely to be the correct reading. Albeit, in support of the former version, the following passage in Lucrece has been adduced :—

"No noise but owls' and wolves' death-boding cries."

It is not to be supposed that Shakespeare was always a firm believer in the popular notions respecting animals and birds to which he has made allusion. In many cases he had a particular motive in introducing such notions, although possibly aware of their erroneous nature, and he evidently adopted them only to impart an air of reality to the scenes which he depicted, and to bring them home more forcibly to the impressionable minds of his auditors, to whom such "folks-lore" would be familiar. This is notably the case as regards the owl, and no one can read the first scene in the second act of Macbeth, or the fourth scene in the first act of Henry VI. (Part II),

without feeling the impressive effect produced by the introduction of a bird which is held in such detestation

by the ignorant, but which naturalists have shown to be not only harmless, but useful.

But-

"The owl, night's herald, shrieks,-'tis very late."

Venus and Adonis.

And, therefore, with Boyet, in Love's Labour's Lost (Act iv. Sc. 1), we will say :

THE CROWS AND THEIR RELATIONS.

Το a superficial observer of nature, there may appear

to be a much greater resemblance between the Raven, the Crow, the Rook, and the Jackdaw, than we find to be actually the case. At the same time, so different to them in outward appearance are the Jay and Magpie, that it may appear extraordinary to class them all together. Nevertheless, while each, of course, has its distinguishing characters, all are included in the first section of the family of crows.

The Raven (Corvus corax), from his size and character, naturally takes the lead. Go where we will over the face of the wide world, the well-known hoarse croak of the raven is still to be heard. He was seen perched on the bare rocks, looking over the dreary snows of the highest points visited. in the Arctic Expeditions. Under the burning sun of the equator he enjoys his feast of carrion. He was discovered in the islands of the Pacific Ocean by Captain

Cook; and in the lowest Southern or Antarctic regions, other travellers have found him pursuing his cautious predatory life, just as in England.*

From the earliest times the raven, with his deep and solemn voice, has always commanded attention, and superstitious people have become impressed with the idea that there is something unearthly in his nature and ✓ ominous in his voice. By the Romans this bird was consecrated to Apollo, and regarded as a foreteller of good or evil. Through a long course of centuries this character has clung to him; and even to this day, there are many who believe that the raven's croak predicts a death.

No wonder, then, that Shakespeare has taken advantage of this wide-spread belief, and has introduced the raven into many of the solemn passages of his Plays, to carry conviction to the minds of the people, and render his images the more impressive. He frequently alludes to "the ill-boding raven: "

"It comes o'er my memory,

As doth the raven o'er the infectious house,

Boding to all."

Othello, Act iv. Sc. I.

Thersites, in Troilus and Cressida (Act v. Sc. 2),

says,

* Stanley's "Familiar History of Birds," p. 179.

An excellent dissertation on the organ of voice in the raven will be found in the second volume of Yarrell's British Birds," 3rd ed. p. 72