Shakespeare Ignored the Warblers

Birds of all varieties have a large role in the plays of William Shakespeare. For instance, in Twelfth Night, Fabian declares: "Here comes my noble gull-catcher." He apparently means a "sharper", but in Tempest, Act II, the bird itself is meant in the line: "Sometimes I'll get the young sea-mells from the rock." Kingfisher, swallow and martin come in for reference by Shakespeare, but he ignores such birds as the warblers, or titmice, and there is no mention of the woodpeckers, unless reference to "wood-birds" meant for them.

It was once believed that while the Halcyon, or kingfisher, was hatching her eggs, the water remained calm, and this period was called "Halcyon Days" as in Henry VI: "Expect St. Martin's summer, halcyon days." The swallow, known for its swiftness of wing, occurs in Richard III: "True hope is swift and flies with swallow's wings." In Timon, "The swallow follows not surrender more willingly than we your lordship." Winter's Tale yields: "Daffodils that come before the swallow dares." The poet several times uses the heraldic term for the martin, which is "martlet," once in Merchant of Venice: "The martlet builds in weather on the outward wall."

Three exotic birds are given attention by Shakespeare-parrot, ostrich and pelican. Parrots are supposed to become restless before a rain, hence, in As You Like It: "More clamorous than a parrot against rain." Because a parrot is supposed to be rewarded in teaching it to talk, we find, in Troilus and Cressida, Act V, the line: "The parrot will not do more for an almond." The reputed extraordinary diet of the ostrich is given recognition in Henry VI, Part II: "I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich." As to the pelican, the best-known legend is that it feeds its young with its own blood, and in Richard II John of Gaunt exclaims: "That blood already, like the pelican, hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd."

In Hamlet, Laertes says: "To his good friends this wide I'll open my arms; and, like the kind, life-rendering pelican, repast them with my blood." For last I have reserved one bird, frequently unpopular as an immigrant to America, but a beautifully marked, chattering, bold, fussy and ubiquitous bird- the starling. These birds often used to be taught to talk. Hotspur, in Henry IV, Part I, referring to Mortimer, declares: "Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but 'Mortimer', and give it him to keep his anger still in motion." This is the only reference to this bird throughout the works of Shakespeare. Perhaps he did not like the starling either!