29. Coming with the spring, the nightingale is charmingly said
to call forth the new leaves.
30. Many-coloured wings, like those of peacocks, were often
given to angels in paintings of the Middle Ages; and in
accordance with this fashion Spenser represents the Angel that
guarded Sir Guyon (“Faerie Queen,” book ii. canto vii.) as
having wings “decked with diverse plumes, like painted jay’s.”
31. The pheasant, scorner of the cock by night: The meaning of
this passage is not very plain; it has been supposed, however, to
refer to the frequent breeding of pheasants at night with
domestic poultry in the farmyard — thus scorning the sway of
the cock, its rightful monarch.
32. The waker goose: Chaucer evidently alludes to the passage
in Ovid describing the crow of Apollo, which rivalled the
spotless doves, “Nec servataris vigili Capitolia voce cederet
anseribus” — “nor would it yield (in whiteness) to the geese
destined with wakeful or vigilant voice to save the Capitol”
(“Metam.,” ii. 538) when about to be surprised by the Gauls in
a night attack.
33. The cuckoo ever unkind: the significance of this epithet is
amply explained by the poem of “The Cuckoo and the
Nightingale.”
34. The drake, destroyer: of the ducklings — which, if not
prevented, he will kill wholesale.
35. The stork is conspicuous for faithfulness to all family
obligations, devotion to its young, and care of its parent birds in
their old age. Mr Bell quotes from Bishop Stanley’s “History of
Birds” a little story which peculiarly justifies the special
character Chaucer has given: — “A French surgeon, at Smyrna,
wishing to procure a stork, and finding great difficulty, on
account of the extreme veneration in which they are held by the
Turks, stole all the eggs out of a nest, and replaced them with
those of a hen: in process of time the young chickens came
forth, much to the astonishment of Mr and Mrs Stork. In a
short time Mr S. went off, and was not seen for two or three
days, when he returned with an immense crowd of his
companions, who all assembled in the place, and formed a
circle, taking no notice of the numerous spectators whom so
unusual an occurrence had collected. Mrs Stork was brought
forward into the midst of the circle, and, after some
consultation, the whole flock fell upon her and tore her to
pieces; after which they immediately dispersed, and the nest was
entirely abandoned.”
36. The cormorant feeds upon fish, so voraciously, that when
the stomach is crammed it will often have the gullet and bill
likewise full, awaiting the digestion of the rest.
37. So called from the evil omens supposed to be afforded by
their harsh cries.