o6 
ALLEGED DESERTION OF YOUNG. 
giveth to the beast his food , and to the young ravens which 
cry!' (Psalm cxlvii. 9.) And again, in Job, “ Who pro- 
videth for the raven his food? When his young ones cry 
unto God , they wander for lack of meat!' (Job xxxviii. 41.) 
In Batman “ upon Bartholome his book, ‘ De proprieta- 
tibus Rerum,’ folio, 1582,” we find the following passage 
bearing upon the question :—“ The raven is called Corvus 
of Corax. It is said that ravens birdes (i.e. } young ravens) 
be fed with deaw of heaven all the time that they have 
no black feathers by benefite of age.” (Lib. xii. c. 10.) 
Izaak Walton, in his “ Compleat Angler,” speaking of 
fish without mouths, which “ are nourished and take 
breath by the porousness of their gills, man knows not 
how,” observes that “ this may be believed if we con¬ 
sider that when 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. cxlvii. 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.” 
Shakespeare, no doubt, had the words of the Psalmist in 
his mind when he wrote— 
“And He that doth the ravens feed, 
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
Be comfort to my age ! ” 
As You Like It , Act ii. Sc. 3. 
