The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 41

For brightness and beauty of plumage, the kingfisher has no equal amongst our British birds, and so straight and rapid withal is its line of flight, that when the sunlight falls upon its bright blue back, it seems as if an azure bolt from a crossbow had been suddenly shot across our path.

It is difficult to calculate or limit the speed which can be produced by the effort of a wing's vibration. We may, nevertheless, ascertain with tolerable accuracy the rate of a bird's flight, as follows:--If we note the number of seconds which are occupied by a bird in pa.s.sing between two fixed points in its line of flight, and measure the distance between these points, we resolve the question to a simple "rule-of-three" sum; inasmuch as, knowing the number of yards flown in a certain number of seconds, we can ascertain the distance traversed in 3,600 seconds, or an hour, and thus obtain the rate of speed per hour; supposing, of course, the speed to be uniform. In this way the flight of the common Swallow (_Hirundo rustica_) has been computed at ninety miles,--

"As swift as swallow flies."

_t.i.tus Andronicus_, Act iv. Sc. 2;

while that of the swift has been conjectured to be nearly one hundred and eighty miles per hour.

"True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings."

_Richard III._ Act v. Sc. 2.

[Sidenote: THE SWALLOW.]

Those who have watched the swallows upon a dull day, skimming low along the ground, and seeming almost to touch it, although flying with speed as undiminished as if high in air, will readily see the aptness of the simile:--

"And I have horse will follow where the game Makes way, and run like swallows on the plain."

_t.i.tus Andronicus_, Act ii. Sc. 2.

"The swallow follows not summer more willingly than we your lordship, nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds are men."--_Timon of Athens_, Act iii. Sc. 6.

The swallow, although one of the earliest, is not always the first of our spring ornaments to appear. There are--

"Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty."

_Winters Tale_, Act iv. Sc. 3.

[Sidenote: THE MARLET.]

A near relative of this bird is the Martin, or, as it is called in the language of heraldry, the "Martlet" (_Hirundo urbica_).

"This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, doth approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze, b.u.t.tress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle.

Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, The air is delicate."

_Macbeth_, Act i. Sc. 6.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was struck with the beauty of this brief colloquy before the castle of Macbeth, and he observes on it:--"This short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, while they are approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a striking instance of what, in painting, is termed 'repose.' Their conversation very naturally turns upon the beauties of its situation, and the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlets' nests in every recess of the cornice, remarks that where these birds most breed and haunt, the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the scene of horror that immediately succeeds."

The bird is mentioned again in the _Merchant of Venice_, where we are reminded that--

"The martlet Builds in the weather on the outward wall, Even in the force and road of casualty."

_Merchant of Venice_, Act ii. Sc. 9.

[Sidenote: THE SWALLOW'S HERB.]

Old authors tell us that when the young swallows are hatched, they are blind for some time, and that the parent birds bring to the nest a plant called _Chelidonium_, or Swallow's herb, which has the property of restoring sight. This popular fallacy appears to be widely disseminated.

The plant is the well-known Celandine (_Chelidonium majus_). It belongs to the _Papaveraceae_, or poppies, and may be found growing in waste places to the height of two feet or more. It is brittle, slightly hairy, and full of a yellow, ftid juice, and bears small yellow flowers in long-stalked umbels.

The name _Chelidonium_ is derived no doubt from the Greek ?e??d??, a swallow: but the reason for its being thus named is not so obvious. Some authors a.s.sert that it was so called on account of its flowering about the time of the arrival of the swallow, while others maintain that it derived its appellation from being the plant medicinally made use of by that bird.

The belief that animals and birds possess a knowledge of certain plants which will cure a disease, or benefit them in some way, is very ancient, and this particular plant is alluded to by old authors as being especially selected for the purpose. Pliny observes (Hist. Nat. fol.

1530, p. 461, xv.): "Animalia quoque invenire herbas, _inprimisque chelidoniam_. Hac enim hirundines oculis pullorum in nido rest.i.tuunt visum, ut quidam volunt, etiam erutis oculis." (!) And the same author further remarks: "Chelidoniam visui saluberrimam hirundines monstravere vexatis pullorum oculis ilia medentes."

Gerard, referring to this plant, in his "Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes" (1597), observes:--"It is called celandine, not because it then first springeth at the comming in of the swallowes, or dieth when they goe away; for as we haue saide, it may be founde all the yeere; but because some hold opinion that with this herbe the dams restore sight to their yoong ones when their eies be out, the which things are vaine and false: for Cornelius Celsus in his sixt booke doth witnesse that when the sight of the eies of diuers yoong birdes be put foorth by some outward meanes, it will after a time be restored of itselfe, and soonest of all the sight of the swallow, whereupon, (as the same saith) that the tale or fable grew, how, thorow an herbe the dams restore that thing, which healeth of itselfe: the very same doth Aristotle alleadge in the sixt booke of the historie of liuing creatures: the eies of young swallowes, saith he, that are not fledge, if a man do p.r.i.c.ke them out, do grow againe, and afterwards do perfectly recouer their sight."

Subsequently, when speaking of the "virtues" of the plant, the sage Gerard continues:--"The iuice of the herbe is good to sharpen the sight, for it clenseth and consumeth awaie slimie things that cleaue about the ball of the eie, and hinder the sight." The root was considered good for yellow-jaundice, and also (being chewed) for toothache. Gerard adds, "The roote cut in small peeces is good to be giuen vnto hawkes against sundrie diseases;" and Turbervile, in his "Booke of Falconrie" (1611), treats of a cure for "a blow giuen to the eye, or of some other mischance," as follows:--"Sometimes the eyes of hawkes are hurt by some mishappe, some stripe, or otherwise, as I said afore. Against such unlooked-for mischances, Master Malopin, in his boke of the Prince, willeth to take the juice of _Celondine_, otherwise _Arondell_, or _Swallowes hearbe_, and to convey it into the eye. And if it bee not to be had greene, to take it drie, and to beat it into powder, and to blow it into her eye with a quill, and this shall recure the hawke."

A marginal note to this paragraph informs us that "Arondell" in French is "Hirundo," a swallow, otherwise called "Chelidon."

Parkinson, in his "Theatrum Botanic.u.m" (1640), alludes to two species of Celandine, _C. major_ and _minor_, and says:--"Some call them _Chelidonia major_ and _minor_, and tooke the name, as Dioscorides saith, because it springeth when swallowes come in; and withered at their going away (which is true in neither, the greater, whereof Dioscorides chiefely speaketh, being greene both winter and sommer; and the lesser springeth before swallowes come in, and is gone and withered long before their departure). Dioscorides likewise, and Pliny also, say it tooke that name from swallowes that cured their young ones' eyes, that were hurt, with bringing this herbe and putting it to them: but Aristotle, and Celsus from him, doe shew that the young ones of partridges, doves, swallowes, &c., will recover their sight (being hurt) of themselves in time, without anything applyed unto them, and therefore Celsus accounteth this saying but a fable."

It is curious to observe how universally this plant appears to be a.s.sociated with the swallow. _Chelidonium majus_ is _Calidonia maggiore_ of the Italians; _Yerva de las gelondrinhas_ of the Spaniards; _Chelidoine Felongue_ and _Esclaire_ of the French; and _Schwalbenkraut_ of the Germans; while we, in English, call it _Celandine_, _Swallow's-herb_, and _Swallow-wort_.

Besides the Swallow-herb there is the Swallow-stone, to which wonderful properties have been likewise attributed in connection with diseases of the eye.

[Sidenote: THE SWALLOW'S STONE.]

Dr. Lebour, in a communication to _The Zoologist_, for 1866, says (p.

523):--"I met last summer, in Brittany, with a curious fact relating to the habits of the common house-swallow. In Brittany there exists a wide-spread belief among the peasantry that certain stones found in swallows' nests are sovereign cures for certain diseases of the eye. I think the same notion holds in many other parts of France, and also in some of our English counties. These stones are held in high estimation, and the happy possessor usually lets them on hire at a sous or so a day.

Now, I had the good fortune to see some of these 'swallow-stones,' and to examine them. I found them to be the hard polished calcareous opercula of some species of _Turbo_, and although their worn state precludes the idea of identifying the species, yet I am confident that they belong to no European _Turbo_. The largest I have seen was three-eighths of an inch long, and one-fourth of an inch broad; one side is flat, or nearly so, and the other is convex, more or less so in different specimens. Their peculiar shape enables one to push them under the eyelid across the eyeball, and thus they remove any eyelash or other foreign substance which may have got in one's eye;[163] further than this, they have no curing power: the peasants, however, believe they are omnipotent. The presence of these opercula in swallows' nests is very curious,[164] and leads one to suppose that they must have been brought there from some distant sh.o.r.e in the swallow's stomach. If so, they must have inhabited the poor bird for a considerable time, and proved a great nuisance to it."

The tradition on this subject, current amongst the peasants in Brittany, is no doubt of some antiquity,[165] since the allusion which Longfellow has made to it in his poem of "Evangeline" would seem to confirm this impression, inasmuch as we may a.s.sume that the tradition found its way into Acadia through the French colonists who were the first to settle there.

Longfellow, in his "Evangeline," says,--

"Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests in the rafters, Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone which the swallow Brings from the sh.o.r.e of the sea to restore the sight of its fledglings; Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the swallow!"

The connection between the stone and the herb is, that both were said to be brought to the nest by the swallow, and both were deemed remedies for defective sight. There is this difference, however, between the current opinion in Brittany and the popular notion in Acadia, that in the former case it is the finder of the stone who is thereby benefited, in the latter it is the sight of the fledglings which is thereby restored.

A friend has suggested that the tradition may have originated with the Chinese, to whom the edible swallows' nests have been so long known, and to whom credit is now given for having been acquainted centuries ago with inventions which until recently were believed to be modern. Not being conversant, however, with Chinese, we are unable to say whether there is in that language any equivalent for "swallow-stone," or "swallow's-herb," or whether ancient Chinese authors in any way throw light upon the subject.[166]

[Sidenote: THE OSTRICH.]

Pliny's mention of the stone found in the stomach of the swallow brings to mind the stones found in the stomach of the ostrich, and so leads to the consideration of another bird noticed by Shakespeare. The food of the ostrich is said to consist of the tops of shrubby plants, seeds, and grain; strange to say, however, it will swallow, with indiscriminating voracity, stones, sticks, pieces of metal, cord, leather, and other substances, which often occasion its destruction. The extraordinary digestion of the bird is thus alluded to in the threat of the rebel Cade, when confronted by Alexander Iden:--

"Ah! villain, thou wilt betray me, and get a thousand crowns of the king by carrying my head to him! _but I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich_, and swallow my sword like a great pin, ere thou and I part."--_Henry VI._ Part II. Act iv. Sc. 10.

This curious habit is not peculiar to the ostriches. The same thing has been observed in the bustards. Dr. Jerdon, speaking of the Indian Bustard (_Eupodotis Edwardsii_), says, "they will often swallow pebbles or any glittering object that attracts them. I took several portions of a bra.s.s ornament, the size of a No. 16 bullet, out of the stomach of one bustard."[167]

In reply to Hotspur's inquiries for "The madcap Prince of Wales," and his comrades, at the rebel camp near Shrewsbury, he is told that they are

"All furnish'd, all in arms; All plum'd like _estridges_ that with the wind Bated; like eagles having lately bath'd."[168]

_Henry IV._ Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.

[Sidenote: THE PELICAN.]