So also, Spenser, in his “Epithalamion,” 1595:—
“Hark how the cheerefull birds do chaunt theyr laies,
And carroll of loves praise.
The merry larke hir mattins sings aloft,
The thrush replyes, the mavis descant playes,
The ouzell shrills, the ruddock warbles soft,
So goodly all agree with sweet consent,
To this dayes merriment.”
And Milton, in the “Paradise Lost,” Book v., has—
“Ye birds