170 



BIRDS IN LEGEND 



I wonder, by the way, who first spoke — the simile is, 

 at any rate, as old as Chaucer's time — of the wrinkles that 

 gather about the corners of our eyes when we get on in 

 life, as "crow's feet"? Frederick Locker sings of his 

 grandmother: 



Her locks as white as snow, 

 Once shamed the swarthy crow; 



By-and-by 

 That fowl's avenging sprite 

 Set his cruel foot for spite 



Near her eye. 



The expression of course is a suggestion of the radiat- 

 ing form of the wrinkles at the outer corner of the eye 

 to a crow's track; and this reminds us of the fact that 

 when soon after the Norman conquest in England there 

 was a vast popular interest in royal genealogy, people 

 spoke of the branching form of a family tree, when 

 drawn on paper, as a "crane's foot" (pied de grue), 

 whence our term pedigree. 



Omens are deduced from the flight and cries of ravens, 

 crows, magpies, and certain other corvine species, 

 especially as regards their direction relative to the in- 

 quirer. Horace, for example, in his Ode to Galatea on 

 her undertaking a journey, tells her that he, as a "prov- 

 ident augur," 



Ere the wierd crow, re-seeking stagnant marshes, 

 Predict the rainstorm, will invoke the raven 

 From the far East, who, as the priestlier croaker, 

 Shall overawe him. 



That is to say, Horace will make the raven, appearing or 

 heard from the eastward (the lucky direction), over-rule 

 the bad omen of the crow. 



