Corporal Punishment (Blackadder) didn't get any messages, and Captain Blackadder definitely did not shoot that delicious plump-breasted pigeon."). Finally, there are pigeon feathers on the floor, which Captain Darling and Melchett believe to be white. But after Baldrick points out that the feathers are "speckly," Melchett is enraged, as it was his beloved pet pigeon Speckled Jim, and tries to strike Blackadder, forcing Darling to physically restrain Melchett. Smugly, Darling then informs Blackadder that he's under arrest and, if found guilty at court-martial, he will face execution by firing squad. Blackadder sends for Sir Bob Massingbird (originally scripted as "Robert Moxon Browne"), a
The Bird-catcher and the Blackbird protection of the gods, and cannot be trapped in nets. The account in Roger L'Estrange's collection of the fables (1692) follows the original closely except for the substitution of the bird's name. "As a Fowler was bending his net, a Black-Bird call'd to him at a distance, and ask'd him what he was doing. Why, says he, I am laying the Foundations of a City; and so the Bird-Man drew out of Sight. The Black-Bird mistrusting nothing, flew presently to the Bait in the Net, and was taken; and as the Man came running to lay hold of her; Friend,