RAVEN. 205 



iar about the house. Pliny speaks of the Raven being 

 tamed, and taught to chase like the Falcon ; and Scaliger 

 affirms, that Louis the Twelfth had one that was trained 

 to attack the Partridge. Albert saw another at Naples, 

 which not only caught Patridges and Pheasants, but birds 

 of its own species, when urged by the presence of the 

 Falconer, 



The sense of smell, or rather that of sight, is very 

 acute in the Raven, so that he discerns the carrion, on 

 which he often feeds, at a great distance. Thucydides 

 even attributes to him the sagacity of avoiding to feed on 

 animals which had died of the plague. Pliny relates a 

 singular piece of ingenuity employed by this bird to quench 

 his thirst ; he had observed water near the bottom of a 

 narrow-necked vase, to obtain which, he is said to have 

 thrown in pebbles, one at a time, until the pile elevated 

 the water within his reach. Nor does this trait, singular 

 as it is, appear to be much more sagacious than that 

 of carrying up nuts and shell-fish into the air, and drop- 

 ping them on rocks, for the purpose of breaking them to 

 obtain their contents, otherwise beyond his reach ; facts 

 observed by men of credit, and recorded as an instinct of 

 the Raven, by Pennant and Latham. It is however seldom 

 that this bird, any more than the rapacious kinds, feels 

 an inclination for drinking, as their thirst is usually 

 quenched by the blood and juices of their prey. The Ra- 

 vens are also more social than the birds of prey, which 

 arises from the promiscuous nature and consequent abun- 

 dance of their food, which allows a greater number to sub- 

 sist together in the same place, without being urged to the 

 stern necessity of solitude or famine, a condition to which 

 the true rapacious birds are always driven. The habits 

 of this species are much more generally harmless, than is 



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