The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 18

[Sidenote: THE CARRION CROW:]

Next to the raven, the Carrion-Crow (_Corvus corone_) claims our attention, from his close relationship to his larger congener. So closely, indeed, does he resemble the raven upon a slightly modified scale, that we might also fancy him--

"A crow of the same nest."

_All's Well that Ends Well_, Act iv. Sc. 3.

Like him, he leads a predatory life, carrying off young game-birds, chickens, and eggs; and where he cannot obtain a fresh meal, he has no objection to carrion and offal of all kinds. Should a sheep die in the field, the crows of the neighbourhood are sure to be attracted to it.

"The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrain flock."

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act ii. Sc. 1.

Gamekeepers, knowing this propensity, and having an eye to the better preservation of pheasants' eggs for the future, avail themselves of the opportunity, when a sheep dies, to place a little strychnine in the mouth and eyes, and on a second visit they are seldom disappointed in finding two or three dead crows.

[Sidenote: ITS PREDATORY HABITS.]

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....

_Host._ By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days."

_Henry V._ Act ii. Sc. 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, And made a prey for carrion kites and crows Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well."

_Henry VI._ Part II. Act v. Sc. 2.

[Sidenote: FOOD FOR CROWS.]

Ca.s.sius, on the eve of battle, augured a defeat because, as he said,--

"Crows Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us, As we were sickly prey; their shadows seem A canopy most fatal, under which Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost."

_Julius Caesar_, Act v. Sc. 1.

In the third act of _Cymbeline_ (Sc. 1), when Caius Lucius, the Roman Amba.s.sador, comes to demand tribute from the British King, he is met with a flat refusal, and Cloten, one of the lords in waiting, deriding his threat of war, says:--

"His Majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime with us a day or two, or longer: if you seek us afterwards in other terms, you shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, _our crows shall fare the better for you_; and there's an end."

Alexander Iden, addressing the lifeless body of Jack Cade, whom he had just slain, exclaims:--

"Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels Unto a dunghill, which shall be thy grave, And there cut off thy most ungracious head; Which I will bear in triumph to the king, Leaving thy trunk _for crows to feed upon_."

_Henry VI._ Part II. Act iv. Sc. 10.

[Sidenote: BLACK AS A CROW.]

Many similar instances might be brought forward. As in the case of the raven, we find the crow, as the emblem of blackness, contrasted with the white dove:--

"With the dove of Paphos might the crow Vie feathers white."

_Pericles_, Act iv. Introd.

Again--

"Lawn as white as driven snow; Cyprus black as e'er was crow."

_Winter's Tale_, Act iv. Sc. 3.

Here we have not only the crow contrasted with snow, but also cyprus, a thin transparent black stuff, somewhat like c.r.a.pe, placed in contradistinction with lawn, which is a white material, like muslin.[65]

"So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows."

_Romeo and Juliet_, Act i. Sc. 5.

"Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow."

_Romeo and Juliet_, Act i. Sc. 2.

Beatrice says (_Much Ado about Nothing_, Act i. Sc. 1),--"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me;" but then this was meant to be personal, for Bened.i.c.k, whom she addressed, was not a favoured suitor. She might have added, with Dromio, in the _Comedy of Errors_, Act iii. Sc. 1:--

"We'll pluck a crow together."

This saying appears to be of some antiquity, but the origin of it is not very clear.

[Sidenote: CROW-KEEPER AND SCARE-CROW.]

The custom of protecting newly sown wheat from the birds by keeping a lad to shout, or putting up a "scare-crow," is no doubt an old one.

Shakespeare makes allusion to both methods:--

"That fellow handles his bow like _a crow-keeper_."

_King Lear_, Act iv. Sc. 6.