JESOTS FABLES. Fab. V. Of the Crow and the Fox. "^T T" "^T T" A S it the Crow that by a cunning Y Y plot A piece of Cheefe had got > Or flierking R ook, or Chough, or Pye ? Some bold affirm, as boldly iome deny. But fure I am it was that Daw, or Crow, And I can prove it to be (b, That robb'd the King his Mafter of his meat; And now to make his Cozenage more compleat, On Man, his King's King, puts the fecond cheat. The Crow, furpriz'd with his own happy Wit, Could neither ftand nor fit; Proud of the Spoil, he makes a fearch Through all the Grove to find a dancing Pearch : From bough to bough th'infulter hops; Too low are now tall Cedars tops. At laft he fix'd; whom flieSir Reynard fees, And foon projecting how to get the Cheefe, Thus he accofts him,plac'd 'mong lofty Trees; O thou moil: ("' Weather-wife, who beft canft tell When Heaven as dark as Hell Juno incens'd fliall make, and when Jove condens'd air will rarifie agen. But what fings lying Fame ? She faies Thou blacker art than thofe foul daies : But yet to thine,Swan's filver down feems tann'd, Phoenix her funerall Fire with flich Plumes fann'd, And Mexicans in fiVht like Angels ftand. D As (.<) The Superditious Amients, as they attributed divine knowledge to fevcral forts of Birds and Beafts, fo efpecially to the Crow , and I believe that the Creek and Rcm*m Hiflory has not recorded fo many fatal pracdiftions made by any animal as by this. But in particular they ghefled at the foul-nffsor ferenity of the weather from the manner of their Croaking or Hying , as we find in Aratm his Th/mt-menn, thus tranfcribed by Virgil in the firft of his Geergickj,though they affign a natural reafon for it, which the reft undcrftood not, Turn liquids* Corvi pref tcr vutture Ar.t quitter ingeminunt, & fepe cttbi/i- bus this, Nefcio qui prtter folitum dulcidint t: )HV#t imbribus Inter fefrliis firepiu Three or four timt ded Throats Loud croaking Rav And oft, I know n :ns double tby what Amongft the Leaves that fhade their lofty Court; And the Storm paft.delightcd are to fee Their own lov'd buildings ,-nJ their Progeny. Nor think I Heaven on them fuch knowk'dg ftates, Nor that their Prudence is above the But when a Tempeft and a fleeting and the ng'd, the mo- e the t-ack Have chang'd their courl moid Air grows black With Southern Winds, which thicken Thin vapours, and the groffer ratifies, Their thoughts; tions of their mind Ircondant are like Clouds befoi Wind: From her.ee Birds chaunt forth Inch melodious Notes. The Beafts are glad.and Crows ftretcli joyful throacs. 1 he difference of their Notes upon change of air is thus delivered by |?/ty. Crews crying tt> one Mother , .,,/ ther fobb'd or jexed therewith, W baJs cLifping Ihimfelvs with their wings, if they ctntinui this Ntte do portc>iu'mds: but ifthqfive ever between whiles and cut their cry fart, M if they fwalhnni it back *Zin, they frefae Rin 'ind tcth.