"Birds and the Bees"

[Fred Shapiro]

A doctoral student working on her dissertation has e-mailed me asking
about the origins of the expression "the birds and the bees" as a
euphemism for sex.  Can anyone supply any information about early uses of
this phrase?  I don't see it in OED or HDAS.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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