_Martin._ The martin, or martlet, which is called in "Macbeth" (i. 6)
the "guest of summer," as being a migratory bird, has been from the
earliest times treated with superstitious respect--it being considered
unlucky to molest or in any way injure its nest. Thus, in the "Merchant
of Venice" (ii. 9), the Prince of Arragon says:

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

Forster[267] says that the circumstance of this bird's nest being built
so close to the habitations of man indicates that it has long enjoyed
freedom from molestation. There is a popular rhyme still current in the
north of England:

"The martin and the swallow
Are God Almighty's bow and arrow."

[267] "Atmospherical Researches," 1823, p. 262.

_Nightingale._ The popular error that the nightingale sings with its
breast impaled upon a thorn is noticed by Shakespeare, who makes Lucrece
say:

"And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part
To keep thy sharp woes waking."

In the "Passionate Pilgrim" (xxi.) there is an allusion:

"Everything did banish moan,
Save the nightingale alone.
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn,
And there sung the dolefull'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity."

Beaumont and Fletcher, in "The Faithful Shepherdess" (v. 3), speak of

"The nightingale among the thick-leaved spring,
That sits alone in sorrow, and doth sing
Whole nights away in mourning."

Sir Thomas Browne[268] asks "Whether the nightingale's sitting with her
breast against a thorn be any more than that she placeth some prickles
on the outside of her nest, or roosteth in thorny, prickly places, where
serpents may least approach her?"[269] In the "Zoologist" for 1862 the
Rev. A. C. Smith mentions "the discovery, on two occasions, of a strong
thorn projecting upwards in the centre of the nightingale's nest."
Another notion is that the nightingale never sings by day; and thus
Portia, in "Merchant of Venice" (v. 1), says:

"I think,
The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren."

[268] Sir Thomas Browne's Works, 1852, vol. i. p. 378.

[269] See "Book of Days," vol. i. p. 515.

Such, however, is not the case, for this bird often s