he duck plenty of room for making its
escape from the dogs when closely pursued, which it did by diving as
often as any of them came near it, hence the following allusion in
"Henry V." (ii. 3):

"And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck."[204]

[203] Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," 1876, p. 329.

[204] There is an allusion to the proverbial saying, "Brag is a
good dog, but Hold-fast is a better."

"To swim like a duck" is a common proverb, which occurs in "The Tempest"
(ii. 2), where Trinculo, in reply to Stephano's question how he escaped,
says: "Swam ashore, man, like a duck; I can swim like a duck, I'll be
sworn."

_Eagle._ From the earliest time this bird has been associated with
numerous popular fancies and superstitions, many of which have not
escaped the notice of Shakespeare. A notion of very great antiquity
attributes to it the power of gazing at the sun undazzled, to which
Spenser, in his "Hymn of Heavenly Beauty" refers:

"And like the native brood of eagle's kind,
On that bright sun of glory fix thine eyes."

In "Love's Labour's Lost" (iv. 3) Biron says of Rosaline:

"What peremptory eagle-sighted eye
Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,
That is not blinded by her majesty?"[205]

[205] In the same scene we are told,

"A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind."

Cf. "Romeo and Juliet," iii. 5; "Richard II.," iii. 3.

And in "3 Henry VI." (ii. 1) Richard says to his brother Edward:

"Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird,
Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun."

The French naturalist, Lacepede,[206] has calculated that the clearness
of vision in birds is nine times more extensive than that of the
farthest-sighted man. The eagle, too, has always been proverbial for its
great power of flight, and on this account has had assigned to it the
sovereignty of the feathered race. Aristotle and Pliny both record the
legend of the wren disputing for the crown, a tradition which is still
found in Ireland:[207] "The birds all met together one day, and settled
among themselves that whichever of them could fly highest was to be the
king of them all. Well, just as they were starting, the little rogue of
a wren perched itself on the eagle's tail. So they flew and flew ever so
high, till the eagle was miles above all the rest, and could not fly
another stroke, for he was so tired. Then says he, 'I'm the king of the
birds,' says he; 'hurroo!'