a crow.'^ That worthy philosopher intended to imply 

 that the crow was so depraved as to be beyond 

 redemption. The sagacious bird, however, has been 

 sharp enough to notice the ambiguity of the utterance, 

 which might have emanated from the Delphic Oracle. 

 He takes advantage of this to interpret the saying as 

 meaning that the crow is perfect, hence no improve- 

 ment is possible, that he has attained the highest 

 pinnacle of righteousness and can therefore mount 

 no higher. Fortunately for the crow he is able to 

 adduce some evidence in support of his contention, 

 for the Hindu law-giver, Manu, once said " a good 

 wife should be like a crow." The bird treasures up 

 this saying, it is to him as the apple of his eye. 



There is, however, nothing ambiguous about the 

 testimonials which the British poets have given the 

 crow. In this case the bards have made no bones 

 about calling a spade a spade. A few extracts from 

 their chits folio w^ There is. I submit, no beating 

 about the bash in them. "The ignoble crow," 

 " The dastard crow," " Lurking villain crow," " The 

 perditious crow," " The treble-dated crow." If you 

 tell a crow that these hard names should make him 

 hide his diminished head, he puts that organ on one 



