466 The Zoologist — November, 1866. 



" The night-crow crieil, aboding hicliless time." 



IJeiny VI., Pari III., Acl v. Scene 6. 



Abodiug, llial is, foreboding. The }Dreference which the raven evinces 

 for " sickly prey" or carrion is well known ; hence we read : 



" Now powers from lioTiie and discontents al home 

 Meet ill cue line ; and vast confusion wails, 

 As doth a raven on a sick fall'ii htasl 

 The imminent decay of wrested jiomp." 



KiiKj John, Acl iv. Scene 3. 

 And again : 



* * " Ravens * * 



I''l}' o'er our heads and downward look on us, 

 As we were sickly prey." 



Juliux CtBsar, Acl v. Scene 3. 



The solitary habits of this bird during the nesting season are thus 



alliidcd to : 



" A barren, detested vale you see it is: 

 The trees, ihoug^h summer, yel forlorn and lean, 

 O'ercome willi moss and baleful misseltoe : 

 Here never shines ihe sun, here nothing breeds, 

 Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven." 



Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Scene 3. 



And a curious belief is mentioned with regard to the rearing of its 



young : 



" Some say ihat ravens foster forlorn children 

 The whilst their own birds famish in their nesls." 



Id., Acl ii. Scene 3. 



Isaak Walton, in his ' Coinj)leat Angler,' speaking of fish without 

 mouths, which " are nourished and take breath by the porousness of 

 their giWs, man knows not how," observes that " this may be believed 

 if we consider that tfhen the raven hath hatched her eggs she takes 

 no further care, but leaves her young ones to the care of the God of 

 Nature, who is said in the Psalms (Psal. clxvii. 9) ' to feed the young 

 ravens that call upon him.' And they be kept alive, and fed by a dew 

 or worms that breed in their nests ; or some other ways that we 

 mortals know not." 



The following passage in ' Datman upon Bartholome his booke,' 

 * De pro])rietatibus Rerum,' folio, 1582, throws some light also on 

 these lines: — 



"The raven is called Corvns of Corax It is said that 



ravens birdes {i.e. young ravens) be fed with deaw of heaven all the 



