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There is another beautiful song that I follow whenever I hear it, straining my eyes to the treetops, yet never finding a bird that I can identify as the singer. Can it be the "Ousel-cock so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill"? He is called the poet-laureate of the primrose time, but I don't know whether he sings in midsummer, and I have not seen him hereabouts.
Indeed, Shakespeare shows his familiarity with nearly all the British birds. "The ousel-cock, so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill, The throstle with his note so true, The wren with little quill. "The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, The plain-song cuckoo gray, Whose note full many a man doth mark. And dares not answer nay." In "Much Ado about Nothing" we get a glimpse of the lapwing:
*Winter's Tale, Act IV Scene ii. *John Aubrey. He knew the lore of fields and woods, of trees and flowers, and birds and beasts. He sang of "The ousel-cock so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill, The throstle with his note so true, The wren with little quill. The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, The plain-song cuckoo gray, Whose note full many a man doth mark, And dares not answer nay."*
"Not just like that, sir," answered Nick, not knowing what to make of his companion's strange new mood; "but I know Master Will Shakspere's 'Then nightly sings the staring owl, tu-who, tu-whit, tu-who! and 'The ousel-cock so black of hue, with orange-tawny bill, and then, too, I know the throstle's song that goes with it."
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