186 Audubon's Ornithological Biography. 



Birds may be said to constitute the poetry of animated 

 nature ; and whether we regard the beauty of their forms and 

 colours, the grace and rapidity of their motions when soaring 

 in the sky, or swimming on the surface of the water, the 

 extent of their vision, or their instinctive intelligence, they seem 

 like creatures of a nature superior to those that are chained 

 to the earth by the power of gravitation, and run or creep 

 upon its surface. What can be really more marvellous than 

 that the egg which we may take into our hand, and which 

 seems as inert as the pebble at our feet, should, in a few 

 weeks, be transformed into a majestic eagle ; flying over the 

 loftiest mountains, and into far distant countries, with the 

 rapidity of an arrow ! This ^transformation may be too com- 

 mon an occurrence to impress our imaginations, and we may 

 deaden the feeling of admiration by the unmeaning words 

 that " this is nothing more than the common course of 

 nature," yet, common as it may be, when it is duly considered 

 as an insulated fact, what miracle of creative energy can 

 appear more astonishing? The power of rapid locomotion 

 which birds possess, and their general dread or dislike of 

 man, remove the larger species from populous countries, and 

 make it difficult to obtain an intimate knowledge of their 

 habits and instincts, though this constitutes the most delight- 

 ful part of natural history. Within the last century, the 

 eagle and the bustard have disappeared from South Britain ; 

 and even the raven is becoming a scarce bird in most parts 

 of England, and the opportunities of observing its instinctive 

 habits, in a state of nature, are seldom afforded to English 

 naturalists. On this account, we shall extract part of Mr. 

 Audubon's observations on the American raven, which, we 

 believe, differs in no respect from the European species : — 



" In the United States, the raven is, in some measure, 

 a migratory bird ; individuals retiring to the extreme south 

 during severe winters, but returning towards the middle, 

 western, and northern districts, at the first indications of 

 milder weather. A few are known to breed in the mountain- 

 ous portions of South Carolina ; but instances of this kind are 

 rare, and are occasioned merely by the security afforded by 

 inaccessible precipices, in which they may rear their young. 

 Their usual places of resort are the mountains, the abrupt 

 banks of rivers, the rocky shores of lakes, and the cliffs of 

 thinly peopled or deserted islands. It is in such places that 

 these birds must be watched, before one can judge of their 

 natural habits, as manifested amid their freedom from the 

 dread of their most dangerous enemy, the lord of the creation. 



" There, through the clear and rarefied atmosphere, the 



