... Alexander the Great was said to have been guided across the desert to the by two ravens from heaven which encouraged stragglers with their croaki… - Edward Allworthy Armstrong

On the whole, the first-rate have the most elaborate equipment. The birds with the most s and greatest ability to move the tend to produce the greatest variety of sounds.

Those who would follow Christ must neither be unduly frightened by what is involved, nor rush into commitments which they will be unable to fulfil.

A rich store of Christian s appeared throughout the centuries before the time of Saint Francis, and he was by no means the first saint to show compassion for animals; but the blossoming of Christian compassion for nature in the thirteenth century and the , taken for granted by most writers, require explanation. Prior to his appearance, Italy had not been fertile in stories, true or apocryphal, telling of men and animals on friendly terms with one another, nor were Italians then any more renowned than they are now for their kindly treatment of birds and beasts. Why, then, should there have accumulated in connexion with a humble n friar a galaxy of stories of this kind?