The Crows 
guished in the description of evening 
when Macbeth tells his wife 
Light thickens, and the crow 
Makes wing to the rooky wood.! 
Like the Raven, the Crows are often 
contrasted with something pure and 
white. Thus, in a striking simile, we 
learn that 
The ornament of beauty is suspect, 
A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air.? 
The simile is sometimes reversed, as where 
Romeo, on seeing Juliet for the first time, 
exclaims : 
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear ! 
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, 
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.® 
Although it is usually with the dove that 
the contrast is drawn, another bird is 
sometimes chosen : 
The crow may bathe his coal-black wings in mire, 
And unperceiv’d fly with the filth away ; 
1 Macbeth, 11. ii. 50. 2 Sonnet, \xx. 
3 Romeo and Juliet, 1. v. 45. 
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