Chapter Sun to Superstitions of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Ravens seen on the left-hand side of a person bode impending evil.

Sæpe sinistra cava prædixit ab ilice cornix.
   —Virgil: Bucolics, i.

Ravens call up rain.

Hark
How the curst raven, with her harmless voice,
Invokes the rain!
   —Smart: Hop Garden, ii. (died 1770).

When ravens [? rooks] forsake a wood, it prognosticates famine.

This is because ravens bear the character of Saturn, the author of such calamities.—Athenian Oracle (supplement, 476).

Ravens forebode pestilence and death.

Like the sad-presaging raven, that tolls
The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak,
And, in the shadow of the silent night,
Does shake contagion from her sable wing.
   —Marlowe: The Jew of Malta (1633).

Ravens foster forsaken children.

Some say that ravens foster forlorn children.
   —(?) Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus, act ii. sc. 3(1593).

It is said that king Arthur is not dead, but is only changed into a raven, and will in due time resume his proper form and rule over his people gloriously.

The raven was white till it turned telltale, and informed Apollo of the faithlessness of Coronis. Apollo shot the nymph for her infidelity, but changed the plumage of the raven into inky blackness for his officious prating.— Ovid: Metamorphoses, ii.

He [Apollo] blacked the raven o’er,
And bid him prate in his white plumes no more.
   —Addison: Translation of Ovid, ii.

If ravens gape against the sun, heat will follow; but if they busy themselves in preening or washing, there will be rain.

(49) Remora. A fish called the remora can arrest a ship in full sail.

A little fish that men call remora,
Which stopped her course, …
That wind nor tide could move her.
   —Spenser: Sonnets (1591).

(50) Robin. The red of a robin’s breast is produced by the blood of Jesus. While the “Man of sorrows” was on His way to Calvary, a robin plucked a thorn from His temples, and a drop of blood, falling on the bird, turned its bosom red.

Another legend is that the robin used to carry dew to refresh sinners parched in hell, and the scorching heat of the flames turned its feathers red.

He brings cool dew in his little bill,
And lets it fall on the souls of sin;
You can see the mark on his red breast still,
Of fires that scorch as he drops it in.
   —Whittler: The Robin.

If a robin finds a dead body unburied, it will cover the face at least, if not the whole body.—Grey. On Shakespeare, ii. 226.

The robins so red, now these babies are dead,
Ripe strawberry leaves doth over them spread.
   —Babes in the Wood.