The bullock starts, the buck verts,
Merrily sing cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo;
Well singest thou cuckoo,
Mayest thou never cease.
This song is preserved amongst the Harleian MSS., No. 978, and is remarkable for being accompanied with musical notes, and as being the oldest sample of English secular music.
The Wagtail (Motacilla Yarrellii) has no claim to be included amongst the birds of song, but as the latter are chiefly small birds, and as Shakespeare has only alluded to it once, we may be excused for introducing it in the present chapter.
In an opprobrious sense, the word “wagtail” would doubtless denote a pert, flippant fellow. Kent, in King Lear (Act ii. Sc. 2), says,—
“Spare my grey beard, you wagtail!”
In many parts of the country this bird is called “dishwasher,” and the name appears to be of some antiquity. Turbervile, in his “Booke of Falconrie,” 1575, speaking