"This fellow picks up wit as pigeons peas."
Pigeons dp not pick up peas in this country, but they do in
England, and are often very damaging to the farmer on that account.
Shakespeare knew also the peculiar manner in which they feed their
young,--a manner that has perhaps given rise to the expression
"sucking dove." In "As You Like It" is this passage:--
"CELIA. Here comes Monsieur Le Beau.
"ROSALIND. With his mouth full of news.
"CELIA. Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young.
"ROSALIND. Then shall we be news-crammed."
When the mother pigeon feeds her young she brings the food, not in
her beak like other birds, but in her crop; she places her beak
between the open mandibles of her young, and fairly crams the food,
which is delivered by a peculiar pumping movement, down its throat.
She furnishes a capital illustration of the eager, persistent
newsmonger.
"Out of their burrows like rabbits after rain" is a comparison that
occurs in "Coriolanus." In our Northern or New England States we
should have to substitute woodchucks for rabbits, as our rabbits do
not burrow, but sit all day in their forms under a bush or amid the
weeds, and as they are not seen moving about after a rain, or at
all by day; but in England Shakespeare's line is exactly
descriptive.