Shakespeare's knowledge of nature is not simply such as can be acquired by any one who passes his childhood and youth in the open air and in the country. But even of this sort of knowledge he has an astonishing store. Whole books have been written as to his familiarity with insect life alone (R. Patterson: _The Natural History of the Insects mentioned by Shakespeare_; London, 1841), and his knowledge of the characteristics of the larger animals and birds seems to be inexhaustible. Appleton Morgan, one of the commentators of the Baconian theory, adduces in _The Shakespearean Myth_ a whole series of examples. In _Much Ado_ (v. 2) Benedick says to Margaret-- "Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches." The greyhound alone among dogs can seize its prey while in full career. In _As You Like It_ (i. 2) Celia says-- "Here comes Monsieur Le Beau. _Rosalind_. With his mouth full of news. _Celia_. Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young." Pigeons have a way, peculiar to themselves, of passing food down the throats of their young. In _Twelfth Night_ (iii. I) the Clown says to Viola-- "Fools are as like husbands, as pilchards are to herrings,--the husband's the bigger." The pilchard is a fish of the herring family, which is caught in the Channel; it is longer and has larger scales. In the same play (ii. 5) Maria says of Malvolio-- "Here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling." When a trout is tickled on the sides or the belly it becomes so stupefied that it lets itself be caught in the hand. In _Much Ado_ (iii. I) Hero says-- "For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs Close by the ground, to hear our conference." The lapwing, which runs very swiftly, bends its neck towards the ground in running, in order to escape observation. In _King Lear_ (i. 4) the Fool says-- "The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long. That it had its head bit off by its young." In England, it is in the hedge-sparrow's nest that the cuckoo lays its eggs. In _All's Well that Ends Well_ (ii. 5) Lafeu says-- "I took this lark for a bunting." The English bunting is a bird of the same colour and appearance as the lark, but it does not sing so well. It would be easy to show that Shakespeare was as familiar with the characteristics of plants as with those of animals. Strangely enough, people have thought this knowledge of nature so improbable in a great poet, that in order to explain it they have jumped at the conclusion that the author must have been a man of science as well.