188 
The Animal-Lore of Shalcspeare’s Time. 
The night-crow, or gor-crow, was probably the same 
bird as Lyly’s night raven :— 
“ Raven and gorcrow, all my birds of prey, 
That think me turning carcase, now they come.” 
(Ben Jonson, The Fox, i. 1.) 
Ben Jonson makes the augurs— 
“ Shew all the birds of food or prey, 
But pass by the unlucky jay. 
The night-crow, swallow, or the kite.” 
( The Masque of Augurs.') 
The Jackdaw, or monedula, seldom obtains honourable 
mention. Drayton calls him “the thievish 
jackdaw. q aw> ” j n ^he Interlude of the Four Elements , 
1510, we read:— 
“ But he that for a commyn welth bysyly 
Studieth and laboryth, and lyveth by Goddes law, 
Except he wax rich, men count hym but a daw.” 
{Bep. Percy Soc., 1848, vol. xxii.) 
Warimjk, the king-maker, declares that, in nice legal 
questions, he is “ no wiser than a daw.” These insinua¬ 
tions that jackdaws are inferior to their feathered comrades 
in intelligence will be treated as calumnies by all who 
have been fortunate enough to possess one of these birds 
us a pet. 
Closely allied to the jackdaw is the Cornish Chough, 
Cornyshe-daw, or Bed-legged Crow, a slighter 
made bird, and more elegant in shape, chiefly 
frequenting the coasts in the west of England. It is 
mentioned by Camden in his description of Cornwall:— 
“ The rocks underneath [St. Michael's Mount] as also along the 
shore everywhere breedeth the Pyrrhocorax, a kind of crow with bill 
and feet red, and not, as Plinie thought, proper to the Alpes onely. 
This bird the inhabitants have found to be an incendiarie, and 
theevish besides: for oftentimes it secretly conveieth fire sticks setting 
their houses a fire, and as closely filcheth and hideth little pieces of 
money.” {Britain, p. 189.) 
