rseback, ye cuckoo." The term _cuckold_, too, which
so frequently occurs throughout Shakespeare's plays, is generally
derived from cuculus,[199] from the practice already alluded to of
depositing its eggs in other birds' nests.

[197] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 201.

[198] "Asinaria," v. 1.

[199] Nares, in his "Glossary" (vol. i. p. 212), says:
"Cuckold, perhaps, _quasi_ cuckoo'd, _i. e._, one served; _i.
e._, forced to bring up a brood that is not his own."

_Domestic Fowl._ In "The Tempest" (v. 1), the word chick is used as a
term of endearment: "My Ariel; chick," etc.; and in "Macbeth" (iv. 3)
Macduff speaks of his children as "all my pretty chickens." In
"Coriolanus" (v. 3), hen is applied to a woman: "poor hen, fond of no
second brood;" and in "Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1), Petruchio says: "so
Kate will be my hen;" and, once more, "1 Henry IV." (iii. 3), Falstaff
says, "How now, Dame Partlet the hen?" In "Othello" (i. 3) Iago applies
the term "guinea-hen" to Desdemona, a cant phrase in Shakespeare's day
for a fast woman.

_Dove._ Among the many beautiful allusions to this bird we may mention
one in "Hamlet" (v. 1), where Shakespeare speaks of the dove only laying
two eggs:[200]

"as patient as the female dove
When that her golden couplets are disclosed."

[200] Singer's "Shakespeare," 1875, vol. ix. p. 294.

The young nestlings, when first disclosed, are only covered with a
yellow down, and the mother rarely leaves the nest, in consequence of
the tenderness of her young; hence the dove has been made an emblem of
patience. In "2 Henry IV." (iv. 1), it is spoken of as the symbol of
peace:

"The dove and very blessed spirit of peace."

Its love, too, is several times referred to, as in "Romeo and Juliet"
(ii. 1), "Pronounce but--love and dove;" and in "1 Henry VI." (ii. 2),
Burgundy says:

"Like to a pair of loving turtle-doves,
That could not live asunder, day or night."

This bird has also been regarded as the emblem of fidelity, as in the
following graphic passage in "Troilus and Cressida" (iii. 2):

"As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre;"

and in "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4) we read:

"turtles pair,
That never mean to part."

Its modesty is alluded to in the "Taming of the Shrew" (ii. 1): "modest
as the dov