of the old
writers. Thus Bishop Hall, in his "Virgidemiarum" (lib. iv. sat. 2),
says:

"The Scottish barnacle, if I might choose,
That of a worme doth waxe a winged goose."

[152] See Harland and Wilkinson's "Lancashire Folk-Lore," 1867,
pp. 116-121; "Notes and Queries," 1st series, vol. viii. p.
224; "Penny Cyclopaedia," vol. vii. p. 206, article "Cirripeda."

[153] Nares's "Glossary," 1872, vol. i. p. 56.

[154] See Harting's "Ornithology of Shakespeare," 1871, pp.
246-257.

[155] "Ornithology of Shakespeare," 1871, p. 252.

[156] See "Philosophical Transactions" for 1835; Darwin's
"Monograph of the Cirrhipedia," published by the Ray Society; a
paper by Sir J. Emerson Tennent in "Notes and Queries," 1st
series, vol. viii. p. 223; Brand's "Popular Antiquities," 1849,
vol. iii. pp. 361, 362; Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare,"
1839, p. 14.

Butler, too, in his "Hudibras" (III. ii. l. 655), speaks of it; and
Marston, in his "Malecontent" (1604), has the following: "Like your
Scotch barnacle, now a block, instantly a worm, and presently a great
goose."

_Blackbird._ This favorite is called, in the "Midsummer-Night's Dream"
(iii. 1) an ousel (old French, _oisel_), a term still used in the
neighborhood of Leeds:

"The ousel cock, so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill."

In "2 Henry IV." (iii. 2) when Justice Shallow inquires of Justice
Silence, "And how doth my cousin?" he is answered: "Alas, a black
ousel,[157] cousin Shallow," a phrase which, no doubt, corresponded to
our modern one, "a black sheep." In Spenser's "Epithalamium" (l. 82),
the word occurs:

"The ousel shrills, the ruddock warbles soft."

[157] See Yarrell's "History of British Birds," 2d edition,
vol. i. p. 218; "Dialect of Leeds," 1862, p. 329. In "Hamlet"
(iii. 2), some modern editions read "ouzle;" the old editions
all have _weasel_, which is now adopted.

_Buzzard._ Mr. Staunton suggests that in the following passage of the
"Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1) a play is intended upon the words, and
that in the second line "buzzard" means a beetle, from its peculiar
buzzing noise:

"_Pet._ O slow-wing'd turtle! shall a buzzard take thee?

_Kath._ Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard."

The beetle was formerly called a buzzard; and in Staffordshire, a
cockchafer is termed a hum-buz. In Northamptonshire we find a proverb,
"I'm between