It is a crow that has come down to us from Eden almost without a moment's intermission.

It is a crow which has passed round the world century after century, and now passes, as the herald of the coming of the sun.
It may yet be made the theme of a majestic musical composition, now that Wagner has come to teach men how to build a lyric drama upon a phrase.

Perhaps the coming American national song may have this familiar crow for its inspiration and its burden.

We might do worse, perhaps, than to take the rooster for our national bird, even if we reject his song as the basis of our national anthem.

We took our eagle from Rome, as France did hers; would it not have been wiser if we had taken the cock instead, as France did after the Revolution?
The Romans and Greeks regarded the cock as a sacred bird.