FABLE AND FOLKLORE 155 



symbolism and dread that have grown up about it, one 

 must have some knowledge of the real Corvus corax. 



The raven is the largest member of the ornithological 

 family Corvidae, measuring two feet from beak to tail- 

 tip. It is everywhere black, with steel-blue and purplish 

 reflections, and is distinguished from its equally black 

 cousins, the crows, by its stouter beak, somewhat hooked 

 at the tip, and especially by the elongated and pointed 

 feathers on the throat. It is powerful in flight, and is 

 noted for performing queer antics in the air. Judged 

 by its anatomy it stands high in the scale of classification, 

 so that some ornithologists, considering also its intellect, 

 have put it quite at the top of the scale — made it the true 

 King of Birds. In its northern home this species is to 

 be found right around the world, inhabiting Asia and 

 Europe as far south as the great ridge of mountains that 

 extends from Spain to Siberia, and also living in Asia 

 Minor and Syria. It is native to all North America, 

 where no arctic island is too remote to be visited by it in 

 summer. Most of the ravens fly southward in winter 

 from polar latitudes to kindlier regions, but those that 

 stay in the far north become doubly conspicuous in a 

 wilderness of snow, for they do not turn white in winter 

 as do many arctic residents; therefore Goldsmith wasted 

 much philosophy in explaining in his Animated Nature 

 why they "become white.'' The raven's ordinary call- 

 note is well enough described by the words "croak" and 

 "caw," but it has many variations. Nuttall quotes Por- 

 phyrius as declaring that no less than 64 different intona- 

 tions of the raven's cries were distinguished by the sooth- 

 sayers of his day, and given appropriate significance. 

 Some notes are indescribably queer. 



Ravens have almost disappeared from thickly settled 



