220 C A R R I O N C R O W, Class 11. 



carrion and other filth. It will alfo eat grain and 

 infetfls j and like the raven will pick out the eyes 

 of young lambs whenjuft dropped: for which rea- 

 fon it was formerly diftinguifhed from the rook, 

 which feeds entirely on grain and infcds, by the 

 name of the gor or gorecrow -, thus Ben Johnfon 

 in his Fox\ a^ I. fcene 2. 



Vulture, kite. 

 Raven and gor-croWy all my birds of prey. 



Virgil fays that its croaking foreboded rain : 

 'I'um Comix plena pluviam vocat improha voce. 



It was alfo thought a bird of bad omen, efpecially 

 if it happened to be feen on the left hand : 



S^peftnijlra cava pradixit ah illice Corn\x, 



England breeds more birds of this tribe than any 

 other country in Europe. In the twenty-fourth of 

 Henry VIII. they were grown fo numerous, and 

 thought fo prejudicial to the farmer, as to be 

 confidered an evil worthy parlementary redrefs : an 

 a6l was pafTed for their deftruftion, in which rooks 

 and choughs were included. Every hamlet was to 

 provide crow nets for ten years -, and all the inha- 

 bitants were obliged at certain times to aflemble 

 during that fpace, to confult the propereft method 

 of extirpating them. 



Though the crow abounds in our^country, yet in 



Sweden 



