• For the tragic story of Tereus, changed to a lapwing, Philomela to a nightingale, and Procne to a swallow, see Ovid, Metamorphoses , VI :⁠— “Now, with drawn sabre and impetuous speed, In close pursuit he drives Pandion’s breed; Whose nimble feet spring with so swift a force Across the fields, they seem to wing their course. And now, on real wings themselves they raise, And steer their airy flight by different ways; One to the woodland’s shady covert hies, Around the smoky roof the other flies; Whose feathers yet the marks of murder stain, Where stamped upon her breast the crimson spots remain. Tereus, through grief and haste to be revenged, Shares the like fate, and to a bird is changed; Fixed on his head the crested plumes appear, Long is his beak, and sharpened like a spear; Thus armed, his looks his inward mind display, And, to a lapwing turned, he fans his way.” See also Confessio Amantis , V :⁠— “And of her suster Progne I finde How she was torned out of kinde Into a swalwe swift of wing, Which eke in winter lith swouning There as she may no thing be sene, And whan the world is woxe grene And comen is the somer tide, Then fleeth she forth and ginneth to chide And chitereth out in her langage What falshede is in mariage, And telleth in a maner speche Of Tereus the spouse breche.” ↩