206 OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



usually imagined ; they are useful to the farmer in the 

 destruction they make of moles and mice, and are often 

 very well contented with insects and earth-worms. 



Though spread over the whole world, they are rarely 

 ever birds of passage, enduring the winters even of the 

 arctic circle,* or the warmth of Mexico, St. Domingo, 

 and Madagascar. t They are particularly attached to the 

 rocky eyries where they have been bred and paired. 

 Throughout the year they are observed together in nearly 

 equal numbers, and they never entirely abandon this 

 adopted home. If they descend into the plain, it is to 

 collect subsistence ; but they resort to the low grounds 

 more in winter than summer, as they avoid the heat 

 and dislike to wander from their cool retreats. They 

 never roost in the woods, like Crows ; and have sufficient 

 sagacity to choose in their rocky retreats a situation de- 

 fended from the winds of the north, commonly under the 

 natural vault formed by an extending ledge or cavity of 

 the rock. Here they retire during the night in compa- 

 nies of 15 to 20. They perch upon the bushes which 

 (rrow straggling in the clefts of the rocks ; but they 

 form their nests in the rocky crevices, or in the holes of 

 the mouldering walls, at the summits of ruined towers ; 

 and sometimes upon the high branches of large and soli- 

 tary trees. After they have paired, their fidelity appears 

 to continue through life. The male expresses his attach- 

 ment by a particular strain of croaking, and they are often 

 observed caressing, by approaching their bills, with as 

 much semblance of affection as the truest turtle doves. 

 In temperate climates, the Raven begins to lay in the 

 months of February or March. The eggs are 5 or 6, of a 

 pale muddy bluish-green, marked with numerous spots and 

 lines of dark olive-brown. She sits about 20 days, and 



* Richardson, in Parry's Voyage. t See Flacour. 



