A little bit of Shakespeare to start the week

in my english lessons at the moment we are reading William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream. here are a few bird refenences (Act 3 Scene 1)

• "the ousel cock so black of hue"
• "The throstle with his note so true"

ok, so maybe there aren't as  many as i thought but is still got me thinking: old english names for birds are so much nicer than modern ones. what is a thrush compared to a throstle? and isn't an ouzel cock so much more politically correct than blackbird?


so for today, i shall leave you with a quote from another of Shakespreare's plays...


"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet."