When daisies pied and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight: The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.[115] In Bottom’s song in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ the bird is styled “the plain-song cuckoo gray,” as if its music were as dull as the colour of its coat. When Portia comes back from her memorable trip to Venice and re-enters her home, Lorenzo, who is eagerly expecting her return, says to Jessica: That is the voice, Or I am much deceived, of Portia. Whereupon Portia, overhearing him, remarks to Nerissa: He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, By the bad voice.[116] As summer advances, the cuckoo’s note, having grown familiar, no longer attracts the notice of the country-folk, as it did when the bird first appeared in April. King Henry IV. avails himself of this common observation when he lectures his son on his misdoings, and compares the Prince’s career to that of “the skipping king” of the previous reign, who lost the respect of the people, and Was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard not regarded.[117] The habit of this bird to lay its egg in another’s nest is naturally made much of in the Plays. We are told that “the cuckoo builds not for himself,”[118] and the poet puts questions which still await an answer: Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows’ nests?[119] The very name of the bird could be used as a term of reproach, as where Falstaff, in retort to the repeated gibes of the Prince of Wales, calls him, “Ye cuckoo.”[120] [Illustration: THE QUAIL] [Sidenote: _The Woodcock_] As might be anticipated, the birds which are treated as game take their place in the Shakespearian dramas, as well as the birds of prey that hunted them. The WOODCOCK, for example, is referred to by name nine times, generally in connection with the gin or springe with which in those days it was taken, and in reference to some trick or contrivance by which somebody is caught or deceived. When, for instance, the Duke of York, seized by Queen Margaret and her lords, struggles to free himself from their hands, he is taunted by two of the lords, who both make use of the language of sport. Clifford tells him: Ay, ay, so strives the woodcock with the gin; to which Northumberland, with equal sarcasm, adds: So doth the cony struggle in the net.[121] Ophelia, when cross-questioned by her father as to the attentions paid to her by Hamlet, answers how the Prince Hath given countenance to his speech With almost all the holy vows of heaven; whereupon Polonius abruptly breaks in with the unfeeling comment: Ay, springes to catch woodcocks; I do know.[122]