The waker goose, the cuckoo, ever unkind;
The popinjay, full of delicacy;
The drake, destroyer of his owne kind;
The stork, avenger of adultery;
The cormorant, hot and full of gluttony
The crows and ravens with their voice of care;
And the throstle old, and the frosty fieldfare.

Naturalists must be left to explain some of these epithets and
designations, not all of which rest on allusions as easily understood as
that recalling the goose's exploit on the Capitol; but the vivacity of the
whole description speaks for itself. One is reminded of Aristophanes'
feathered chorus; but birds are naturally the delight of poets, and were
befriended by Dante himself.

Hereupon the action of the poem opens. A female eagle is wooed by three
suitors--all eagles; but among them the first, or royal eagle, discourses
in the manner most likely to conciliate favour. Before the answer is
given, a pause furnishes an opportunity to the other fowls for delighting
in the sound of their own voices, Dame Nature proposing that each class of
birds shall, through the beak of its representative "agitator," express
its opinion on the problem before the assembly. There is much humour in
the readiness of the goose to rush in with a ready-made resolution, and in
the smart reproof administered by the sparrow-hawk amidst the uproar of
"the gentle fowls all." At last Nature silences the tumult, and the lady-
eagle delivers her answer, to the effect that she cannot make up her mind
for a year to come; but inasmuch as Nature has advised her to choose the
royal eagle, his is clearly the most favourable prospect. Whereupon,
after certain fowls had sung a roundel, "as was always the usance," the