CROW 



.] NATURAL HISTORY. 77 



from the instrument in the action. The poison of the 

 Crocodile worketh by cold air and light, and therefore by 

 the want of both is to be cured. 



7'opse//, "History of Serpents," pp. 683-92. 



Crow. 



Crows are fatted with the murrion flock. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, ii. i, 97. 



THE Crow is a bird of long life. And diviners tell 

 that she taketh heed of spyings and awaitings, and teacheth 

 and sheweth ways, and warneth what shall fall. But it 

 is full unlawful to believe, that God showeth his privy 

 council to Crows. Among many divinations, diviners mean 

 that Crows token rain with greding and crying. And is a 

 jangling bird and unmild, and grievous to men there they 

 dwell. And eateth unclean meats and venomous, and liveth 

 right long. In age their feathers wax white ; but in 

 flesh within, the longer they live, the more black they be. 

 Crows rule and lead storks, and come about them as it 

 were in routs, and fly about the storks, and defend them, 

 and fight against other birds and fowls that hate storks. 

 And take upon them the battle of other birds upon their 

 own peril. And an open proof thereof is, for in that 

 time that the storks pass out of the country Crows be 

 not seen in places where they were wont to be ; and also 

 for they come again with sore wounds, and with voice of 

 blood that is well known, and with other signs and tokens, 

 and show that they have been in strong fighting. And 

 the mildness of the bird is wonderful. For when father 

 and mother in age be both naked and bare of feathers, 

 then the young Crows hide and cover them with their 

 feathers and gather meat and feed them. And sometime 

 when the father and mother wax old and feeble, then the 

 young Crows underset them and rear them up with their 

 wings, and comfort them to use to fly, to bring the 

 members that be diseased into state again. 



Bartholomew (Berthelet}, bk. xii. 9. 





IN the solstice the Crow is seized with disease ; it feeds 

 freely on nuts. It lies in wait for the eggs of the dove, 

 to break them and suck them. 



Hortus Sanitatis, bk. in., ch. xxxiii. 



