The word was doubtless in the first place an onomatopoieia, denoting the humming, buzzing sound of wings. Since, however, it was particularly connected with birds, it seems to have been used in the sense of music and song by our Elizabethan poets, and by Milton. Thus:— “Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet With charm of earliest birds.” (_Paradise Lost_, Book iv. 642.) And again:— “Morn when she ascends With charm of earliest birds.” (_Paradise Lost_, Book iv. 651.) Here, however, in the New Forest, we find the original signification of the word preserved. Let us further notice one or two more words, which are used by Milton and his contemporaries, and even much later, but which are now found in the Forest, and doubtless elsewhere, as mere provincialisms. Thus, though we do not meet his “tale,” in the sense of number, as in _L’Allegro_,— “And every shepherd tells his tale, Under the hawthorn in the dale;” —that is, number of sheep: we find its allied word “toll,” to count. “I toll ten cows,” is no very uncommon expression. Then, too, we have the word “tole,” used, as I believe it still is in America, of enticing animals, and thus metaphorically applied to other matters. So, in this last sense, Milton speaks of the title of a book, “Hung out like a toling sign-post to call passengers.”[232] Again, too, the bat is here called “rere-mouse” (from the Old-English _hrere-mus_, from _hreran_ to flutter, literally the fluttering mouse, the exact equivalent of the German Flitter-maus[233]), with its varieties rennie-mouse and reiny-mouse,[234] whilst the adjective “rere” is sometimes used, as in Wiltshire, for raw. On the other hand, the word fliddermouse, or, as in the eastern division of Sussex, flindermouse (from the High-German _fledermaus_), does not, to my knowledge, occur. In the Midland counties it is often known as “leathern wings” (compare _ledermus_); and thus, Shakspeare, with his large vocabulary, using up every phrase and metaphor which he ever met, makes Titania say of her fairies:— “Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings.” (_Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act ii., sc. 3.)