And again—

“Ravens

Fly o’er our heads, and downward look on us,

As we were sickly prey.”

Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc. 3.

ITS PRESENCE ON BATTLE-FIELDS.

In Henry V. (Act iv. Sc. 2) we have a graphic picture of a distressed army followed by ravens on the look-out for corpses:—

“Yond island carrions, desperate of their bones,

Ill-favour’dly become the morning field:

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose,