Download Business Driven Information Systems Canadian 4th Edition Baltzan Test Bank all chapters

You might also like

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 44

Business Driven Information Systems

Canadian 4th Edition Baltzan Test Bank


Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-systems-canadian-4th-e
dition-baltzan-test-bank/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Business Driven Information Systems Canadian 4th


Edition Baltzan Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-canadian-4th-edition-baltzan-solutions-manual/

Business Driven Information Systems 4th Edition Paige


Baltzan Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-4th-edition-paige-baltzan-test-bank/

Business Driven Information Systems 4th Edition Paige


Baltzan Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-4th-edition-paige-baltzan-solutions-manual/

Business Driven Information Systems 6th Edition Baltzan


Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-6th-edition-baltzan-test-bank/
Business Driven Information Systems 5th Edition Baltzan
Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-5th-edition-baltzan-test-bank/

Business Driven Information Systems Candian 3rd Edition


Baltzan Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-candian-3rd-edition-baltzan-test-bank/

Business Driven Management Information Systems 3rd


Edition Baltzan Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-management-
information-systems-3rd-edition-baltzan-test-bank/

Business Driven Information Systems Australian 3rd


Edition Baltzan Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-australian-3rd-edition-baltzan-test-bank/

Business Driven Information Systems 5th Edition Baltzan


Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/business-driven-information-
systems-5th-edition-baltzan-solutions-manual/
c6

Student: ___________________________________________________________________________

1. What is a telecommunications system?


A. Enables the transmission of data over public or private networks
B. A communications, data exchange, and resource-sharing system created by linking two or more computers
and establishing standards, or protocols, so that they can work together
C. Any network without a central file server and in which all computers in the network have access to the public
files located on all other workstations
D. A computer that is designed to request information from a server

2. What is a network?
A. Enables the transmission of data over public or private networks
B. A communications, data exchange, and resource-sharing system created by linking two or more computers
and establishing standards, or protocols, so that they can work together
C. Any network without a central file server and in which all computers in the network have access to the public
files located on all other workstations
D. A computer that is designed to request information from a server

3. Which of the following is not a characteristic of what could happen to VoIP Traffic?
A. Intercepted
B. Captured
C. Modified
D. Codified

4. The zone of coverage of an antenna of a wireless Internet service provider is approximately ____.
A. 1 KM
B. 100 KM
C. 1000 KM
D. 525 KM
5. What is an ISP?
A. The B2B purchase and sale of supplies and services over the Internet
B. Involves buying through prenegotiated contracts with qualified suppliers
C. Buying commodity-like products which is transaction-oriented, and rarely involves a long-term or ongoing
relationship between buyers and sellers
D. A company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet along with additional related
services, such as website-building

6. Which cellular networks are circuit-switched digital networks that can transmit data at about 10 kilobits per
second (Kbps), which is extremely slow?
A. 2G
B. 3G
C. 4G
D. 5G

7. Which networks use a newer packet-switched technology that is much more efficient (and hence faster) than
dedicated circuit-switched networks?
A. 2G
B. 3G
C. 4G
D. 5G

8. Which network technology will take mobile communication another step up to integrate radio and television
transmissions, and to consolidate the world's phone standards into one high-speed technology?
A. 2G
B. 3G
C. 4G
D. 5G

9. The 1G cellular technology uses ____.


A. Advanced Mobile Phone Service
B. Time Division Multiple Access
C. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
D. High-Speed Packet Access
10. Which is not a common GIS use?
A. Digital phone calls
B. Mapping densities
C. Information alerts
D. Finding what is nearby

11. WiMAX offers Web access speeds that are ___________________ faster than typical wireless networks,
though they are still slower than wired broadband.
A. ten times
B. five times
C. fifty times
D. two times

12. What is a computer network that uses cables or radio signals to link two or more computers within a
geographically limited area, generally one building or a group of buildings?
A. Local area network
B. Wide area network
C. Metropolitan area network
D. Peer-to-peer network

13. What is a computer network that provides data communication services for business in geographically
dispersed areas (such as across a country or around the world).
A. Local area network
B. Wide area network
C. Metropolitan area network
D. Peer-to-peer network

14. The 2G cellular technology uses ____.


A. Advanced Mobile Phone Service
B. Time Division Multiple Access
C. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
D. High-Speed Packet Access

15. What is a computer network that provides connectivity in a geographic area or region larger than that
covered by a local area network, but smaller than the area covered by a wide area network?
A. Client/server network
B. Corporate network
C. Metropolitan area network
D. Peer-to-peer network
16. ________ is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet along with
additional related services, such as website-building.
A. ASP
B. MRP
C. ISP
D. ERP

17. What is a virtual private network?


A. Are natural parts of the Earth's environment that can be used as physical paths to carry electrical signals.
B. A way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure access to an
organization's network
C. A private network, provided by a third party, for exchanging information through a high capacity connection.
D. Refers to a type of cable composed of four (or more) copper wires twisted around each other within a plastic
sheath

18. What is a value-added network?


A. Are natural parts of the Earth's environment that can be used as physical paths to carry electrical signals.
B. A way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure access to an
organization's network
C. A private network, provided by a third party, for exchanging information through a high-capacity
connection.
D. Refers to a type of cable composed of four (or more) copper wires twisted around each other within a plastic
sheath

19. The 3G cellular technology uses ____.


A. Advanced Mobile Phone Service
B. Time Division Multiple Access
C. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
D. High-Speed Packet Access

20. What is immediate, up-to-date information?


A. Real-time information
B. Off-time information
C. Near-time information
D. All of these
21. Which of the following offers an extensive array of unique services such as its own version of a Web
browser?
A. Internet service provider (ISP)
B. Online service provider (OSP)
C. Application service provider (ASP)
D. Wireless Internet service provider (WISP)

22. Which of the following is not an example of a wireless technology that is being integrated throughout
business?
A. RFID
B. GPS
C. Bluetooth
D. Micro hard drive

23. The 4G cellular technology uses ____.


A. Advanced Mobile Phone Service
B. Time Division Multiple Access
C. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
D. High-Speed Packet Access

24. What is wireless fidelity?


A. A means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals
B. An omnidirectional wireless technology that provides limited-range voice and data transmission over the
unlicensed 2.4-GHz frequency band, allowing connections with a wide variety of fixed and portable devices
that normally would have to be cabled together
C. A technology that uses active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique
identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances

25. What is Bluetooth?


A. A means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals
B. A telecommunications industry specification that describes how mobile phones, computers, and personal
digital assistants (PDAs) can be easily interconnected using a short-range wireless connection
C. A technology that uses active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique
identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances
26. What is radio frequency identification?
A. A means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals
B. An omnidirectional wireless technology that provides limited-range voice and data transmission over the
unlicensed 2.4-GHz frequency band, allowing connections with a wide variety of fixed and portable devices
that normally would have to be cabled together
C. A technology that uses active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique
identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances

27. What is a microwave transmitter?


A. A means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals
B. An omnidirectional wireless technology that provides limited-range voice and data transmission over the
unlicensed 2.4-GHz frequency band, allowing connections with a wide variety of fixed and portable devices
that normally would have to be cabled together
C. A technology that uses active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique
identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances

28. What is a global positioning system?


A. A device that determines current latitude, longitude, speed, and direction of movement
B. Designed to work with information that can be shown on a map
C. Contains a microchip and an antenna, and typically work by transmitting a serial number via radio waves to
an electronic reader, which confirms the identity of a person or object bearing the tag
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances

29. What is a geographic information system?


A. A device that determines current latitude, longitude, speed, and direction of movement
B. Designed to work with information that can be shown on a map
C. Contains a microchip and an antenna, and typically works by transmitting a serial number via radio waves to
an electronic reader, which confirms the identity of a person or object bearing the tag
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances

30. What is an RFID tag?


A. A device that determines current latitude, longitude, speed, and direction of movement
B. Designed to work with information that can be shown on a map
C. Contains a microchip and an antenna, and typically works by transmitting a serial number via radio waves to
an electronic reader, which confirms the identity of a person or object bearing the tag
D. Commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances
31. Which of the following is not a component of an RFID tag?
A. Tag
B. Reader
C. Store
D. Computer network

32. What is the order of how RFID works in the supply chain?
A. Manufacturer, store, distribution center, home
B. Home, manufacturer, store, distribution center
C. Distribution center, manufacturer, store, home
D. Manufacturer, distribution center, store, home

33. Which of the following is a driver of wireless growth?


A. Universal access to information and applications
B. The invention of the micro hard drive
C. GIS
D. All of these

34. What are the three technologies influencing business mobility?


A. Bluetooth, RFID, satellite
B. Bluetooth, security sensor, satellite
C. RFID, satellite, RFID tags
D. Satellite, GPS, GIS

35. What allows subscribers to connect to a server at designated hotspots or access points using a wireless
connection?
A. Internet service provider (ISP)
B. Online service provider (OSP)
C. Application service provider (ASP)
D. Wireless Internet service provider (WISP)

36. Which two companies are competing head-to-head with wireless technology?
A. RIM and UPS
B. UPS and FedEx
C. FedEx and RIM
D. Apple and Microsoft
37. Which of the following technologies provides nearly universal coverage?
A. Fixed wireless
B. Satellite
C. DSL
D. T1/T3

38. Which of the following technologies provides highest speed?


A. Satellite
B. Fibre-to-the-home
C. DSL
D. T1/T3

39. What is a company that offers an organization access over the Internet to systems and related services that
would otherwise have to be located in personal or organizational computers?
A. Internet service provider (ISP)
B. Online service provider (OSP)
C. Application service provider (ASP)
D. Wireless Internet service provider (WISP)

40. The key advantage of providing data communication links between a company and its suppliers or
customers is the sharing of data.
True False

41.

Skype has long been one of the most popular VoIP options for consumers—largely because of its low cost.

True False

42. An Internet service provider (ISP) is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the
Internet along with additional related services, such as website-building.
True False

43. Medium capacity is the difference between the highest and the lowest frequencies that can be transmitted on
a single medium, and it is a measure of the medium's capacity.
True False
44. The term bandwidth generally refers to high-speed Internet connections transmitting data at speeds greater
than 200 kilobytes per second (Kbps), compared to the 56 Kbps maximum speed offered by traditional dial-up
connections.
True False

45. FedEx's famous tracking system, which can find a package's location from its tracking number, uses a
wireless courier-management system.
True False

46. A PDA differs from a normal cell phone in that it has an operating system and local storage, so users can
add and store data, send and receive email, and install programs to the phone as they could with a smartphone.
True False

47. VPN is a way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure access to
an organization's network.
True False

48. The global positioning system is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and is not
available for general use around the world.
True False

49. Some leading-edge farmers use GPS satellite navigation to map and analyze fields, telling the farmers where
to apply the proper amounts of seeds, fertilizer, and herbicides.
True False

50. Value-added network (VAN) is a private network, provided by a third party, for exchanging information
through a high capacity connection.
True False

51. Common examples of wireless devices include cellular phones and pagers, GPS, and two-way radios.
True False
52. Wireless means the technology can travel with the user, but it is not necessarily in real-time.
True False

53. LAN is a private network, provided by a third party, for exchanging information through a high capacity
connection.
True False

54. Mobile means the technology can travel with the user, but it is not necessarily in real-time.
True False

55. LAN is a way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure access to
an organization's network.
True False

56. The term wireless refers to any type of electrical or electronic operation that is accomplished without the use
of a "hard wired" connection.
True False

57. The term mobile refers to any type of electrical or electronic operation that is accomplished without the use
of a "hard wired" connection.
True False

58. ________ is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet along with
additional related services, such as website-building.
________________________________________

59. ____________________ has long been one of the most popular VoIP options for consumers—largely
because of its low cost.
________________________________________

60. Much like data, VoIP traffic can be__________________, captured, or modified.
________________________________________
61. _____________________ is the difference between the highest and the lowest frequencies that can be
transmitted on a single medium, and it is a measure of the medium's capacity.
________________________________________

62. _______ is a way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure access
to an organization's network.
________________________________________

63. The transportation industry is using ____________ devices to help determine current locations and alternate
driving routes.
________________________________________

64. 3G networks are designed for high-speed transmission of ________________ and voice.
________________________________________

65. ____________ defines the specific responsibilities of the service provider and sets the customer
expectations.
________________________________________

66. A(n) _____________________ differs from a normal cell phone in that it has an operating system and local
storage, so users can add and store data, send and receive email, and install programs to the phone as they could
with a PDA.
________________________________________

67. _________________________ are wireless mobile content services that provide location-specific data to
mobile users moving from location to location.
________________________________________

68. Voice over IP (VoIP) uses _____ technology to transmit voice calls over long-distance telephone lines.
________________________________________
69. A(n) ____________ area network (MAN) is a computer network that provides connectivity in a geographic
area or region larger than that covered by a local area network, but smaller than the area covered by a wide area
network.
________________________________________

70. ____________ fidelity is a means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals.
________________________________________

71. _________ technology means the technology can travel with the user, but it is not necessarily in real-time.
________________________________________

72. _________ is a private network, provided by a third party, for exchanging information through a high
capacity connection.
________________________________________

73. A _________ is a way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure
access to an organization's network.
________________________________________

74. Radio frequency identification tags have the potential to reinvent the ___________ chain.
________________________________________

75. The three components of an RFID system include the tag, ________, and computer network.
________________________________________

76. RFID in the retail supply chain includes the manufacturer, distribution center, store, and __________.
________________________________________

77. Microwave ____________ are commonly used to transmit network signals over great distances.
________________________________________
78. A global ____________ system is a device that determines current latitude, longitude, speed, and direction
of movement.
________________________________________

79. A(n) _________ information system is designed to work with information that can be shown on a map.
________________________________________

80. Distinguish among LANs, WANs, and MANs.

81. List different telecommunications transmission media and suitable network along with speed.

82. Explain how a wireless device can help an organization perform business anywhere, anyplace, anytime.

83. Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.
84. List and discuss the key factors inspiring the growth of wireless technologies.

85. Describe the business benefits associated with enterprise mobility.

86. Discuss and differentiate the different generations of mobile communications technologies.

87. List and discuss concerns about a number of privacy issues associated with location-based services (LBS).

88. Distinguish between mobile and wireless technologies.


c6 Key

1. What is a telecommunications system?


A. Enables the transmission of data over public or private networks
B. A communications, data exchange, and resource-sharing system created by linking two or more computers
and establishing standards, or protocols, so that they can work together
C. Any network without a central file server and in which all computers in the network have access to the public
files located on all other workstations
D. A computer that is designed to request information from a server

This is the definition of a telecommunications system.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #1
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

2. What is a network?
A. Enables the transmission of data over public or private networks
B. A communications, data exchange, and resource-sharing system created by linking two or more computers
and establishing standards, or protocols, so that they can work together
C. Any network without a central file server and in which all computers in the network have access to the public
files located on all other workstations
D. A computer that is designed to request information from a server

This is the definition of network.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #2
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.
3. Which of the following is not a characteristic of what could happen to VoIP Traffic?
A. Intercepted
B. Captured
C. Modified
D. Codified

Much like data, VoIP traffic can be intercepted, captured, or modified.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #3
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

4. The zone of coverage of an antenna of a wireless Internet service provider is approximately ____.
A. 1 KM
B. 100 KM
C. 1000 KM
D. 525 KM

The WISP offers access to the Internet and the Web from anywhere within the zone of coverage provided by an
antenna. This is usually a region with a radius of approximately one kilometre.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #4
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

5. What is an ISP?
A. The B2B purchase and sale of supplies and services over the Internet
B. Involves buying through prenegotiated contracts with qualified suppliers
C. Buying commodity-like products which is transaction-oriented, and rarely involves a long-term or ongoing
relationship between buyers and sellers
D. A company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet along with additional related
services, such as website-building

An Internet service provider (ISP) is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the
Internet along with additional related services, such as Web site building.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #5
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.
6. Which cellular networks are circuit-switched digital networks that can transmit data at about 10 kilobits per
second (Kbps), which is extremely slow?
A. 2G
B. 3G
C. 4G
D. 5G

Second-generation cellular networks are circuit-switched digital networks that can transmit data at about 10
kilobits per second (Kbps), which is extremely slow.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #6
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-03 Describe the business drivers for using mobile technologies; and the advantages and disadvantages of using cellular technologies in
business.

7. Which networks use a newer packet-switched technology that is much more efficient (and hence faster) than
dedicated circuit-switched networks?
A. 2G
B. 3G
C. 4G
D. 5G

Third-generation (3G) networks use a newer packet-switched technology that is much more efficient (and hence
faster) than dedicated circuit-switched networks.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #7
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-03 Describe the business drivers for using mobile technologies; and the advantages and disadvantages of using cellular technologies in
business.

8. Which network technology will take mobile communication another step up to integrate radio and television
transmissions, and to consolidate the world's phone standards into one high-speed technology?
A. 2G
B. 3G
C. 4G
D. 5G

The 4G technology will take mobile communication another step up to integrate radio and television
transmissions, and to consolidate the world's phone standards into one high-speed technology.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #8
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-03 Describe the business drivers for using mobile technologies; and the advantages and disadvantages of using cellular technologies in
business.
9. The 1G cellular technology uses ____.
A. Advanced Mobile Phone Service
B. Time Division Multiple Access
C. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
D. High-Speed Packet Access

Refer to Figure 6.12

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #9
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-03 Describe the business drivers for using mobile technologies; and the advantages and disadvantages of using cellular technologies in
business.

10. Which is not a common GIS use?


A. Digital phone calls
B. Mapping densities
C. Information alerts
D. Finding what is nearby

GIS is not a phone system

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #10
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-04 Describe how satellite technologies are used in business; and how LBS; GPS; and GIS help create business value.

11. WiMAX offers Web access speeds that are ___________________ faster than typical wireless networks,
though they are still slower than wired broadband.
A. ten times
B. five times
C. fifty times
D. two times

WiMAX offers Web access speeds that are five times faster than typical wireless networks, though they are still
slower than wired broadband.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #11
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-05 Explain Wi-Fi; WiMAX; and RFID technologies; and their use in business; as well as mobile business trends.
12. What is a computer network that uses cables or radio signals to link two or more computers within a
geographically limited area, generally one building or a group of buildings?
A. Local area network
B. Wide area network
C. Metropolitan area network
D. Peer-to-peer network

This is the definition of LAN.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #12
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

13. What is a computer network that provides data communication services for business in geographically
dispersed areas (such as across a country or around the world).
A. Local area network
B. Wide area network
C. Metropolitan area network
D. Peer-to-peer network

This is the definition of WAN.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #13
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

14. The 2G cellular technology uses ____.


A. Advanced Mobile Phone Service
B. Time Division Multiple Access
C. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
D. High-Speed Packet Access

Refer to Figure 6.12.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #14
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 06-03 Describe the business drivers for using mobile technologies; and the advantages and disadvantages of using cellular technologies in
business.
15. What is a computer network that provides connectivity in a geographic area or region larger than that
covered by a local area network, but smaller than the area covered by a wide area network?
A. Client/server network
B. Corporate network
C. Metropolitan area network
D. Peer-to-peer network

This is the definition of MAN.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #15
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

16. ________ is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet along with
additional related services, such as website-building.
A. ASP
B. MRP
C. ISP
D. ERP

An Internet service provider (ISP) is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the
Internet along with additional related services, such as website-building.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #16
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-01 Explain network basics and how networks enable data sharing to occur.

17. What is a virtual private network?


A. Are natural parts of the Earth's environment that can be used as physical paths to carry electrical signals.
B. A way to use the public telecommunication infrastructure (e.g., Internet) to provide secure access to an
organization's network
C. A private network, provided by a third party, for exchanging information through a high capacity connection.
D. Refers to a type of cable composed of four (or more) copper wires twisted around each other within a plastic
sheath

This is the definition of VPN.

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation


Baltzan - Chapter 06 #17
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 06-02 Describe the use of networks and telecommunications in business (i.e.; VoIP; networking businesses; increasing the speed of business; and
the challenges associated with securing business networks).
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Magpie

It will be remembered that among the produce on its way to London


in the carts of the two carriers at the Rochester inn there was a
pannier of live turkeys.[183]
The peacock is alluded to several times in the Plays as the
accepted personification of pride. Joan of Arc is represented as
counselling the Princes:
Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while
And like a peacock sweep along his tail;
We’ll pull his plumes and take away his train.[184]
Thersites says of Ajax that he “goes up and down the field asking for
himself; he stalks up and down like a peacock—a stride and a
stand.”[185] When King Henry V. mingles incognito among his
soldiers in France, one of them tells him:
That’s a perilous shot out of an elder-gun, that a poor and
a private displeasure can do against a monarch! you may as
well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face
with a peacock’s feather.[186]
“‘Fly pride,’ says the peacock,” is a pithy proverb put into the mouth
of Dromio of Syracuse.[187]
The Jay
The dove and the pigeon are often mentioned
in Shakespeare’s writings, without any essential Doves and
distinction being drawn between them. Thus, we Pigeons
read in one passage that “Venus yokes her silver
doves,”[188] while in another place the birds appear as “Venus’
pigeons.”[189] Again, in a less poetical sphere, they are even
interchanged as articles of food. On the one hand we find Justice
Shallow ordering “some pigeons” and any other “pretty little tiny
kickshaws” for the entertainment of Falstaff,[190] and on the other
hand, we note that old Gobbo, when he wanted Bassanio to take his
son into service, presents to that gentleman “a dish of doves.”[191]
The Dove is typically pure white, and stands as the recognised
emblem of gentleness, purity and innocence. Yet in direst
emergencies this timid bird may show fight in defence of its young.
We are told that
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.[192]

It was believed that when “frighted out of fear” the dove would peck
the ostrich,[193] and it had probably been actually observed in
hawking experience, that as
Cowards fight when they can fly no further
So doves do peck the falcon’s piercing talons.[194]

The turtle-dove, long the accepted symbol of conjugal affection


and loving tenderness, has an honoured place in Shakespeare’s
pages.[195] We there read of “a pair of loving turtle-doves that could
not live asunder day or night.”[196] Florizel takes Perdita’s hand in
Winter’s Tale, with the significant assertion:
So turtles pair
That never mean to part.[197]
And at the end of the same Play, the widowed Paulina, when all
around her has at last ended happily, desires to retire into solitude:
I, an old turtle,
Will wing me to some wither’d bough and there
My mate, that’s never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.

The Turtle-Dove

The Pigeon is not only presented as an article of food; but is


sometimes slightingly alluded to, with reflections on its mode of
feeding and its timidity. Of the “honey-tongued Boyet” it was
remarked
This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease
And utters it again when God doth please.[198]

And Hamlet, reflecting on his slowness to avenge his father’s


murder, reproaches himself as “pigeon-liver’d and lacking gall.”[199]
I have reserved for the last section of this Essay
the smaller birds, including the songsters, as these The Smaller
are noticed in Shakespeare’s Poems and Dramas. Birds
A number of them are grouped together by Bottom
in the ditty, singing which he wakes the sleeping Fairy Queen:
The ousel-cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill;

The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,


The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark
And dares not answer nay.[200]

Of the birds recounted in this song,


The Lark
Shakespeare’s favourite, if we may judge from the
frequency and appreciation with which he mentions it, was the lark.
He makes this bird a rival to Chanticleer in the honour of setting the
day agoing. He calls it “the morning lark,” “the herald of the morn,”
specially associated with the brightness and glory of dawn.
Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty.[201]

Again
The busy day,
Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows.[202]

The blithe sound of the bird’s carol is commemorated in the line


The merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks.

How joyfully does this feeling find expression in the exquisite song in
Cymbeline:
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings,
And Phoebus ’gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes;
With every thing that pretty is,
My lady sweet arise:
Arise, arise![203]

The bird-melodies of night and morning were never more delicately


commingled than in the garden scene where Juliet, from her window
above, would fain persuade her lingering lover that it was not yet
near day:
Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale; look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops:
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Jul. Yond light is not day-light, I know it, I:
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet; thou needst not to be gone.
Rom. Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye,
’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow.
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
How is’t my soul? let’s talk: it is not day.
Jul. It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune.
* * * * * * *
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes;
O, now I would they had changed voices too![204]

The Song-Thrush
The blackbird or ouzel, depicted in Bottom’s
song as “so black of hue, with orange-tawny bill,” The Ouzel and
though one of our most melodious songsters, Throstle
receives no commendation from Shakespeare. It is
only once again mentioned by him, when its name is used with a
rather uncomplimentary meaning. When Justice Shallow enquires of
his brother magistrate regarding his god-daughter, Silence replies,
“Alas, a black ousel, cousin Shallow.”[205] It is a pity that the old and
distinctive name ouzel for this bird has become obsolete, though it
may still be heard in use in Scotland. On the other side of the Tweed,
also, where so many linguistic relics of the old alliance with France
still remain, the blackbird is likewise known by its French name of
merle, while the common name of the thrush is mavis, likewise from
the French mauvis.
The thrush or throstle, another of our most musical warblers,
is cited thrice by Shakespeare without any further comment on his
voice than the compliment in Bottom’s song—“with his note so true.”
The bird comes into one of Autolycus’ songs:
The lark, that tirra-lyra chants,
With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.[206]

Our great dramatist refers to the wren no fewer than nine times
in his different Plays. Its small size is noticed, and the bird is credited
with an amount of courage disproportionate to its stature. When
Macduff flees to England his wife bitterly complains that he should
have left her and his children without his protection:
He loves us not;
He wants the natural touch; for the poor wren,
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.[207]
When Imogen, recovering in the cave, hardly knows where she is,
she muses With herself and prays:
I tremble still with fear: but if there be
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
As a wren’s eye, fear’d gods, a part of it![208]

Shakespeare hardly does justice to the notes of the wren, which are
louder, sweeter and more varied than might have been looked for in
so tiny a bird. Portia thought that if the nightingale sang by day it
would be thought no better than the wren.[209] And, in another
passage, words of consolation “from a hollow breast” are likened to
“the chirping of a wren.”[210]
The wagtail is alluded to once by the poet,
when its name is used in contempt by Kent The Wagtail
towards Goneril’s steward: and Bunting

Thou zed! thou unnecessary letter! I will tread this unbolted


villain into mortar. Spare my gray beard?—you wagtail![211]
There is one reference by Shakespeare to the bunting, probably
the common corn-bunting or bunting-lark, which is not unlike the lark,
and further resembles that bird in nesting on the ground. In All’s Well
that Ends Well, the old lord Lafeu, when assured by Bertram that he
had mistaken the character of Parolles, remarks; “Then my dial goes
not true; I took this lark for a bunting.”[212]
The redbreast or ruddock is most fully referred to in
Cymbeline. Arviragus enters, bearing in his arms Imogen, seemingly
dead, and as he lays the body down he thus addresses it:
With fairest flowers,
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I’ll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose, nor
The azured harebell, like thy veins; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander
Out-sweetened not thy breath: the ruddock would
With charitable bill,—O bill, sore shaming
Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
Without a monument!—bring thee all this;
Yea, and furr’d moss besides, when flowers are none,
To winter-ground thy corse.[213]

The list of signs whereby Speed knows that his master Valentine is
in love begins thus: “first, you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to
wreathe your arms, like a male-content; to relish a love-song, like a
robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence.”[214]
When Hotspur presses his wife to sing and she twice refuses, his
only remark is, “’Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast-
teacher.”[215]
The only allusion to the hedge-sparrow occurs
in King Lear. When Goneril has gone some way in The Hedge-
her recrimination of her father, the Fool, who had sparrow and
just before called the old king “a shealed peascod,” Finch

breaks into the conversation with these lines:


The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long
That it had it head bit off by it young.[216]

The finch, included in Bottom’s song, is not elsewhere mentioned


by the poet, though the epithet “finch-egg,” as a term of reproach, is
hurled by Thersites at Patroclus.[217] Of the various English finches
we may suppose that the bird intended was the common chaffinch.
The familiar house-sparrow, though often mentioned by
Shakespeare, receives little commendation from him. He twice
connects it with evidence of the care of Providence, in obvious
allusion to passages in Holy Writ. Hamlet observes that “there is
special providence in the fall of a sparrow.”[218] Reference has
already been made to the trust expressed by Orlando’s faithful old
Adam in Him “that providently caters for the sparrow.”[219] The bird
comes also into the presentation of classical deities in The Tempest,
where Iris tells how Venus’
Waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows
And be a boy right out.[220]

Thersites, who had been soundly thrashed by Ajax, takes his own
method of revenge by declaring
I have bobbed his brain more than he has beat my bones; I
will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pin mater is not
worth the ninth part of a sparrow.[221]
The swallow is cited in the Plays for the
swiftness of its flight, and for its annual The Swallow
migration.[222] When Richmond gives the order to
march for Bosworth Field, he adds,
True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.[223]

The rapidity with which this bird can pursue its course, even close to
the ground, had not escaped the poet’s notice. Titus, in praise of his
stud, affirms
I have horse will follow where the game
Makes way, and run like swallows o’er the plain.[224]

When Falstaff was rebuked for his dilatory journey to the field of
battle, he justified himself thus:
I never knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of
valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet?
Have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought?
I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of
possibility.[225]
The arrival of the swallow with spring is charmingly brought before
us in this little picture of vernal flowers:
Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phœbus in his strength, a malady
Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds.[226]

The regular disappearance of the bird on the approach of autumn


is taken as a symbol of human constancy. Timon of Athens is
assured by his associates:—“The swallow follows not summer more
willing than we your lordship.”[227]

The Wren
For the house-martin or martlet
Shakespeare seems to have had a special regard. The House-
He had noted the courageous way in which the Martin
bird places its nest, and the social instinct which
leads it to build in companies where it can find convenient
settlements. In one passage we are told:
The martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.[228]

When King Duncan arrives at the Castle of Inverness, and is


delighted with the situation of the building and the pleasantness of
the air, Banquo calls his attention to the numerous nests of the
house-martin as evidence of the salubrity of the climate:
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
The air is delicate.[229]
I have reserved for the last place in the list of
Shakespeare’s birds his references to the The
nightingale. These are numerous and may be Nightingale
divided into two groups. In one of them the style is
somewhat artificial in tone, reflecting not the poet’s own experience
of the bird, but the legendary interpretation of its song that had been
handed down from remote antiquity. In the other group, the
nightingale takes its natural place as one of our familiar English
songsters. There was a Greek myth that Philomela, the daughter of
an Attic King, after being cruelly treated by her brother Tereus, was
compassionately changed by the gods into a nightingale, and that
thereafter she spent her life among woods lamenting in mournful
notes the fate that had befallen her. Her name came to be given to
the bird. Shakespeare, following this legend, introduces the bird as
Philomel into his separate Poems and into the lyrics included in his
dramas. In the ordinary dialogue of the Plays, however, dropping the
Greek name and legend, he uses the common English appellation of
the bird, and, like ancient and modern poets, speaks of the bird as
feminine, although it is the male alone that sings.
The House-Martin

Along with the ancient myth about Philomela he intertwined


another and probably much more recent, but equally unfounded
belief that the nightingale, when it sings, leans against a thorn that
pierces its breast. This combination of ignorant fancies is most fully
expressed in the following passage:
Every thing did banish moan,
Save the nightingale alone:
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean’d her breast up-till a thorn,
And there sung the dolefull’st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity:
‘Fie, fie, fie,’ now would she cry;
‘Tereu, tereu!’ by and by;
That to hear her so complain,
Scarce I could from tears refrain;
For her griefs, so lively shown,
Made me think upon my own.[230]

The same artificial note of sadness runs through the other


allusions to Philomel. In Lucrece we read:
By this, lamenting Philomel had ended
The well-tuned warble of her nightly sorrow.[231]

Again in the Sonnets:


As Philomel in summer’s front doth sing,
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough,
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.[232]

The poet has brought Philomel into his fairy-land, and has for the
moment left out any reference to the alleged mournfulness of her
music:
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell, nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.[233]

In the Plays it is pleasant to find the bird with its English name
and in natural surroundings. When Valentine, one of the Two
Gentlemen of Verona, was banished from Milan and from the lady of
his love, he pictured to himself among the woes that lay in front of
him:
Except I be by Silvia in the night
There is no music in the nightingale.

You might also like