ITS PREDATORY HABITS. III 
Throughout the Plays we meet with frequent allusions 
to the crow, and its partiality for carrion. In the fifth act 
of Cymbeline a scene is laid in a field between the British 
and Roman camps, where the following dialogue takes 
place :— 
“ British Captain. Stand! who’s there? 
Posthumus. A Roman, 
Who had not now been drooping here, if seconds 
Had answer’d him. 
British Captain. Lay hands on him; a dog! 
A leg of Rome shall not return to tell 
What crows have peck’d them here.” 
Cymbeline, Act. v. Sc. 3. 
Again— 
“ Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my 
master,—and you, hostess ;—he is very sick, and would 
to bed. j 
Host. By my troth, he’ll yield the crow a pudding one 
of these days.” 
Henry V. Act ii. Se. 1. 
The Duke of York, on the field of St. Albans, boasting 
of his victory over Lord Clifford, says, in reply to the 
Earl of Warwick :— 
“The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed, 
But match to match I have encounter’d him, 
