Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him,
To keep his anger still in motion.”
Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
It is stated that when M. Girardin visited his friend M. Thirel in Paris, he was agreeably astonished at hearing a starling articulate a dozen consecutive sentences with the
same precision as if they had been spoken by some person in the next room; and when the bell rang for mass, the same bird called to its mistress, by name, “Mademoiselle, entendez-vous la messe que l’on sonne? Prenez votre livre et revenez vite, donner à manger a votre polisson.” If this statement can be depended upon, M. Girardin might well have been astonished.
THE KINGFISHER.
It was formerly believed that during the time the Halcyon or Kingfisher was engaged in hatching her eggs, the water, in kindness to her, remained so smooth and calm, that the mariner might venture on the sea with the happy certainty of not being exposed to storms or tempests; this period was therefore called, by Pliny and Aristotle, “the halcyon days.”
“Expect Saint Martin’s[161] summer, halcyon days.”
Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
It was also supposed that the dead bird, carefully balanced and suspended by a single thread, would always turn its beak towards that point of the compass from which the wind blew.