In the Privy Purse expenses of King Henry VIII. the following entry occurs under date November, 1532:—
| “Itm̃.—The laste daye paied in rewarde to a woman that wolde have gyven a popingay to the King’s grace | x s̃.” |
THE STARLING.
The practice of turning to advantage the capability which certain birds possess for learning to utter words must be of some antiquity, for Pliny alludes to the starlings which were trained for the amusement of the young Cæsars, as being capable of uttering both Latin and Greek.
Shakespeare thus refers to the starling’s talking powers:—
“Hotspur. He said, he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I’ll holloa, ‘Mortimer!’
Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak