Note: Links to MIDI sound files may not work on some devices.
From the Chandos Portrait
THE
ORNITHOLOGY
OF
SHAKESPEARE.
JAMES EDMUND HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S.,
MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION,
AUTHOR OF “THE BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX,”
ETC., ETC.
JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXI.
PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER,
MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.
PREFACE.
OF no other author, perhaps, has more been writtenthan of Shakespeare. Yet whatever other knowledgehis commentators professed, few of them appear to havebeen naturalists, and none, so far as I am aware, haveexamined his knowledge of Ornithology.
An inquiry upon this subject, undertaken in the firstinstance for my own amusement, has resulted in thebringing together of so much that is curious and entertaining,that to the long list of books already publishedabout Shakespeare, I have been bold enough to add yetanother. In so doing, I venture to hope that the readermay so far appreciate the result of my labour as not toconsider it superfluous.
As regards the treatment of the subject, a word or twoof explanation seems necessary. In 1866, from the notesI had then collected, I contributed a series of articles onthe birds of Shakespeare to The Zoologist. In thesearticles, I referred only to such birds as have a claim to beconsidered British, and omitted all notice of domesticated species. I had not then considered any special arrangementor grouping, but noticed each species seriatim in theorder adopted by Mr. Yarrell in his excellent “History ofBritish Birds.” Since that date, I have collected so muchadditional information on the subject, that, instead ofeighty pages (the extent of my first publication), threehundred have now passed through the printers’ hands.With this large accession of material, it was found absolutelynecessary to re-arrange and re-write the whole. Thebirds therefore have been now divided into certain naturalgroups, including the foreign and domesticated species, toeach of which groups a chapter has been devoted; and Ihave thought it desirable to give, by way of introduction,a sketch of Shakespeare’s general knowledge of naturalhistory and acquaintance with field-sports, as bearingmore or less directly on his special knowledge of Ornithology,which I propose chiefly to consider.
After I had published the last of the series of articlesreferred to, I received an intimation for the first time, that,twenty years previously, a notice of the birds of Shakespearehad appeared in the pages of The Zoologist. Ilost no time in procuring the particular number whichcontained the article, and found that, in Decem