“Cov’ring with moss the dead’s unclosed eye,
The little redbreast teaching charitie.”
Rook. As an ominous bird this is mentioned in “Macbeth” (iii. 4). Formerly the nobles of England prided themselves in having a rookery[320] in the neighborhood of their castles, because rooks were regarded as “fowls of good omen.” On this account no one was permitted to kill them, under severe penalties. When rooks desert a rookery[321] it is said to foretell the downfall of the family on whose property it is. A Northumbrian saying informs us that the rooks left the rookery of Chipchase before the family of Reed left that place. There is also a notion that when rooks haunt a town or village “mortality is supposed to await its inhabitants, and if they feed in the street it shows that a storm is at hand.”[322]
The expression “bully-rook,” in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (i. 3), in Shakespeare’s time, says Mr. Harting,[323] had the same meaning as “jolly dog” nowadays; but subsequently it became a term of reproach, meaning a cheating sharper. It has been suggested that the term derives its origin from the rook in the game of chess; but Douce[324] considers it very improbable that this noble game, “never the amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on this occasion.”
Snipe. This bird was in Shakespeare’s time proverbial for a foolish man.[325] In “Othello” (i. 3), Iago, speaking of Roderigo, says:
“For I mine own gain’d knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe,
But for my sport and profit.”
Sparrow. A popular name for the common sparrow was, and still is, Philip, perhaps from its note, “Phip, phip.” Hence the allusion to a person named Philip, in “King John” (i. 1):
Gurney. Good leave, good Philip.
Bastard.Philip?—sparrow!
Staunton says perhaps Catullus alludes to this expression in the following lines:
“Sed circumsiliens, modo huc, modo illuc,
Ad solam dominam usque pipilabat.”