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Ian Fraser writes, "While today the word is only used for another thrush
(the Ring Ouzel Turdus
torquatus) it originated a very long time ago in Old
English as the name for
Blackbird, which only took over in the 1600s."
The Oxford Dictionary of British Bird Names includes the following
comment: "In Early Modern English an initial w developed in some
districts, and this form may be spelt Woosell as in Shakespeare's Midsummer
Night's Dream of 1590." 'The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, / With
Orenge-tawny bill'.
John Layton.
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