An old name for the redbreast is “ruddock”[75] the meaning of which is illustrated in the word “ruddy;” and the bird is still known by this name in some parts of England.
Shakespeare has thus named it in one of his most beautiful passages:—
“With fairest flowers
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I’ll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose, nor
The azur’d hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweeten’d not thy breath: the ruddock would,
With charitable bill,—O, bill, sore-shaming