were still alive and may find means to revenge the death of Duncan, thus addresses Lady Macbeth: —
"There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund; ere the Bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight: ere, to black Hecate's summons,
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note."
Macbeth. Act iii., Scene 2.
As the witches in Macbeth made use of "Baboon's blood" when preparing a charm, so they also availed themselves of—
"Wool of Bat, and tongue of dog."
Id. Act iv., Scene 1.
Hamlet, while railing at his mother for marrying the murderer of his father, says:—
"'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a Bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide?"
Hamlet. Act hi., Scene 4.
(To be continued.)
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE LAKE DISTRICT.
By W.A. Durnford.
Since my last communication I have noted but few observations of interest. Whether from the unusual wetness of the season—fifty-four inches of rain having fallen here in 1877, against an average of thirty-six inches for the last four years—or from the absence of any continued frost, the visits of very few rare birds have been recorded. It must not be inferred from this that no uncommon varieties have been observed in the neighbourhood, for many may have been seen and even procured without any record having been made of the fact. Indeed, I am inclined to think that to one recorded instance of the occurrence of a rare species a dozen may be really understood to have appeared in the same district.
