Corvée

“ It makes one shudder to think of a living creature being precipitated from the top; yet here the female Corbie sits secure, and far more fearless, in far less agitation of spirits, than if her nest were placed in a flowery meadow. ”

“ Everybody knows the Common Crow that goes caw-cawing over the fields through the long summer day, and hunts in the freshly-turned furrows for grubs and wire-worms, and settles down upon the marshes where the white flocks are feeding, dotting them here and there with great black spots, as though some literary giant had taken too much ink in his pen, and scattered it out over the landscape before he began to write. Oh yes, everybody knows the familiar Crow, called by scientific people Corvus corone, Latin and Greek again for the same thing—a Crow! ”

“ Setting aside the services rendered by the Crow to agriculture, I esteem him for certain qualities which are agreeably associated with the charms of Nature. It is not the singing-birds alone that contribute by their voices to gladden the husbandman and cheer the solitary traveller. The crowing of the Cock at the break of day is as joyful a sound, though not so musical, as the voice of the Robin who chants his lays at the same early hour. To me the cawing of the Crow is cheering and delightful, and it is heard long before the majority of birds have left their perch. ”

“ For some are cold as clabber and the corby picks the brains of them,
And some are back in Blighty, and a-wishing they had died.
And yet it seems but yesterday, that great, glad sight of them,
Swinging on to battle as the sky grew black and black ”

“ The Corbie, thus feared by some creatures, hated by others, and most especially detested by the shepherd, on account of certain bloody designs against his fleecy charge, whenever driven by hunger to the attack, makes his nest in the deepest retirement, in solitude the most inaccessible. He selects a leafless, sapless branch of some stunted tree, a mountain-birch or service, jutting out from the face of a perpendicular rock, and hanging over an abyss hundreds of fathoms deep, the bottom often beset with sharp and pointed rocks. ”

“ Surely a night-clerk in crow-town has an easy task. There need be no prolonged hammering on the door of the guest who would be called early. One tap is sufficient. I had hoped to stand beneath that tree and sight my crow in the gray of dawn, see him yawn with that prodigious black beak after he had withdrawn it from under his wing, then stretch one wing and one leg, as birds do, look the world over, catch sight of me and go off at a great pace, shouting a hasty warning to the world in general. ”

“ After that time comes, there is very little quiet within the home of a crow; and all the world about may guess, without being a bit clever, where the nest is. A good thing it is for the noisy youngsters that by that time they are so large that it does not matter quite so much.
But it was before the "kah-and-gubble" habit had much more than begun that Corbie was adopted; and the nestlings were really as still as could be when the father of the Brown-eyed Boy and the Blue-eyed Girl climbed way, way, way up that big tree and looked into the round little room up there. ”

“ A crow and his wife once dwelt in a tree, in all delight of life, till they came to the time of the hatching of their young, to wit, the season of midsummer, when a serpent issued from his hole and crawled up the tree, till it came to the crows’ nest, where it coiled itself up and there abode all the days of the summer, whilst the crow was driven away and found no place wherein to lie. ”

“ Is it not the very place for a richly carved surs (corbel) ?”
“Ay, that is it, that is it! A corbel which should spring from the pillar, and follow the line of the arch. We must reflect on this, Master Gervase, and they shall be of finest cutting, and each varying from the other. But we may not think of this yet awhile, for truly there is enough on hand to call for all thy skill and industry. How fair it looks, with the winter sunshine striking on the fair stonework! ”

“ Selecting a convenient spot whence we could see without being seen, and provided with a powerful binocular, we watched and waited with the most exemplary diligence and patience, and were rewarded, after some time, by discovering the culprit to be neither rat, stoat, nor weasel, nor other quadrupedal marauder, but a common crow, or rook rather—Corvus frugilegus, Linnæus calls him, though Corvus omnivorus would be nearer the mark—a large old male bird, as he afterwards proved to be, who had doubtless in his day sucked many an egg and sacked many a homestead of its callow fledglings. ”

“ Somehow, there seems to be always a wag or clown among each group of animals,—some one species in which the amusing or the grotesque is prominent. Among these clownish fellows I should class the black vulture, or john-crow. He is not a crow at all, but gets that name probably because so historic a tribe as Corvus must have some representative, and the real crow, so common at the North, is one of the few birds that are not much seen in this quarter. ”

“ A Crow having stolen a bit of flesh, perched in a tree, and held it in her beak. A Fox seeing her, longed to possess himself of the flesh: and by a wily stratagem succeeded. "How handsome is the Crow," he exclaimed, "in the beauty of her shape and in the fairness of her complexion! Oh, if her voice were only equal to her beauty, she would deservedly be considered the Queen of Birds!" ”

“ The corby, or hooded crow, is the cognizance of our house, and this bird, commonly of evil omen, is said to be lucky to our race. 'Tis not a nice bird, and I could wish we had an eagle or a falcon to our crests; but after all they are alike birds of prey. They say we are not Saxon, but British in descent, and that is how we come by our black hair and eyes. The Stantons, who should, methinks, be dark, are all fair.
I was the youngest of my family. My mother was a great friend of the Lady Margaret Vernon, our dear Mother Superior. ”

“ If the gray, or hoodie, crow—always remembering that crows, gray or black, are servants of the Devil, just as ravens are, and very cunning—if the crow, I say, thought that here was food without some horrible form of hidden death lurking behind it, then the chances were the gray crow was right. ”

“ He took out the handkerchief and unwrapped the crow’s feathers, rubbed them between his fingers, and, pop! the crow was before him. ‘What is it, adopted brother?’ The prince replied: ‘The old woman’s mare has run away, and I don’t know where she is.’ The crow answered: ‘Here she is amongst us; she has become a crow, and the foal a young crow. But flap the halter in the air, and cry: “Coop! coop! old woman’s mare!”’ He flapped the halter in the air, and cried: ‘Coop! coop! old woman’s mare!’ and the mare transformed herself from a crow into a mare, just as she had been, and came before him. ”

“ It is not easy to distinguish, whether that other fowl painted over the punch bowl, be a crow or a raven. It is true they have both been ominous birds: but I rather take it to be the former; because it is the disposition of a crow to pick out the eyes of other creatures, and often even of Christians, after they are dead; and is therefore drawn here with a design to put the jacobites in mind of their old practice, first to hill us asleep (which is an emblem of death) and then to blind our eyes, that we may not see their dangerous practices against the state. ”

“ The corby crow, too, shouted out of his nest on some tree lower than usual, is a good flying mark to the more advanced class, or morning magpie, a-chatter at skreigh of day close to the cottage door among the chickens, or a flock of pigeons wheeling over head on the stubble-field, or sitting so thick together that every stook is blue with tempting plumage. ”

“ And I have observed repeatedly, at different times and in different localities, that when I use the distress-call of a young crow as a decoy, the first to appear over the tree-tops is a female. This is the common rule, with occasional exceptions to point or emphasize it. But whenever I clamor like a crow that has discovered an owl, or send forth a senselessly excited hawing, almost invariably the first crow to come whooping over is a long-winged and glossy old male. ”

“ The Bible says that the hairs of our heads are numbered. So are the feathers on a crow’s body. Nature knows just how many there are altogether; how many there are of each sort—primaries, secondaries, tertials, greater coverts, middle coverts, lesser coverts, and scapulars—in the wing; just how each sort is arranged; just when each sort is to be moulted and renewed. If Master Crow does not take care of his [Pg 35] clothes, then he will have to go without until the time for a new suit comes; for Mother Nature won’t patch them up as your mother patches up yours. ”

“ Nor is this enmity with the Corbie confined to the feathered tribes: sundry of our quadrupeds live in constant warfare with the ill-conditioned fowl. If you see a Corbie hovering and screaming over a linn or athwart the face of a rock, you may be sure that some animal has attracted his attention. Perhaps a fox is basking on a sunny slope; or the wild cat, cautiously seeking a safe footing whence to spring on some unwary bird that has its nest among the cliffs ”

“ If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its rapacity; fear is unknown to it. ”

“ The breeding operations of a few species begin in June.
Chief of these is that arch-villain Corvus splendens—the Indian house-crow. Crows have no fine feathers, hence the cocks do not "display" before the hens. To sing they know not how. Their courtship, therefore, provides a feast for neither the eye nor the ear of man. The lack of ornaments and voice perhaps explains the fact that among crows there is no noisy love-making. Crows make a virtue of necessity. Any attempt at courtship after the style of the costermonger is resented by the whole corvine community. ”

“ The same is true of the crow guests at the Pasture Pines Hotel. I had the{25} pleasure of waking them early there this morning, incidentally, and vicariously, waking all crow-town. Last night, just as the last tint of amber was fading from the sunset sky, letting a yellow-green evening star come through, almost like a first daffodil, a crow slipped bat-wise across the amber and dropped into a certain pine to roost. ”

“ For Corbie learned, as every sturdy person must, in some way or other, how to protect himself when there was need.
Yes, Corbie's beak was wonderful. Of course, lips are better on people in many ways than beaks would be; but we cannot do one tenth so many things with our mouths as Corbie could with his. To be sure, we do not need to, for we have hands to help us out. If our arms had grown [Pg 116] into wings, though, as a bird's arms do, how should we ever get along in this world? ”

“ He strewed the vegetable garden with torn and tattered squash-blossoms—gorgeous [Pg 111] bits of color that it was such fun to find hidden under the big green leaves! He strutted to the flower-garden, and pulled off all the yellow pansies, piling them in a heap. He jumped for the golden buttercups, nipping them from their stems. He danced for joy among the torn dandelion blooms he threw about the lawn. For Corbie was like a human baby in many ways. He must handle what he loved, and spoil it with his playing. ”

“ From Virginia southward, this small Crow (length 16 inches) is more abundant on the coast than the common Crow which is often in company with this species. Their food consists of grain, berries, and animal matter. Their nesting habits are like those of the common Crow and the eggs are similar and have as great variations, but are smaller. ”

“ The venerable lady who had hitherto figured as a crow, but who was neither more nor less than a queen herself, recognised in these two youths her long lost sons, and they, in their turn, recognised the late crow as their mother, and fell upon her neck and kissed her. ”

“ Never since the world began had man or beast fallen into that bog and come out again alive. But this giant had saved his horse and himself. Plainly a giant endued with the mastery of the elements, lord of earth and water and air and fire, a magician to be worshipped like the storm-cloud. Fearing doom for himself and all the little people, came Corb. ”

“ A crow, however, has no real pretensions to religion, in spite of his gravity of mien and black attire. Crows are certainly thieves, and probably infidels. Nevertheless, their voices yesterday were in admirable accordance with the influences of the quiet, sunny, warm, yet autumnal afternoon. ”

“ Corbel, kor′bel, n. (archit.) a projection of stone or wood from the face of a wall, supporting pillars or other superincumbent weights.—adj. Cor′belled.—ns. Cor′belling; Cor′bel-tā′ble, a row of corbels and the parapet or cornice they support. [O. Fr. corbel—Low L. corvellus, dim. of corvus, a raven.]
Corbiculum, kor-bik′ū-lum, n. the flattened hairy outer surface of the hind-tibia of a bee, used for carrying pollen:—pl. Corbic′ula.—adj. Corbic′ulate. [L., dim. of corbis, a basket.]
Corbie, kor′bi, n. a raven, crow.—Corbie messenger (Scot.) , one who returns too late, or not at all ”

“ The crow strikes my bell, between the mouths of my stone lions. See you not? The crow came as is its habit, to pick morsels of food out of the mouth of the lion. And the lions were not lions. I deceived the crow. Let a sheep be killed: and place some meat in the lions' mouths, that the crow may find its meal. ”