CHAPTER XI 



SABLE PIRATES 



(Raven, Carrion Crow, Hooded Crow) 



THE Family Cor vide a, with Corvus Cor ax at the head 

 of it, is perhaps most remarkable for an almost 

 uncanny cunning and for a cruelty and independence 

 of character which, coupled with darkness of plumage 

 and a death-like sepulchral note, have resulted in many 

 evil superstitions being associated with them. Following 

 these superstitions came an era of enlightenment when 

 the exponent of fiction stepped into the field, and at any 

 rate attained something by establishing a more sympa- 

 thetic feeling in the minds of the public. The crow 

 family is a large one, but in the following I intend to deal 

 only with the raven and his two immediate followers, 

 the carrion and the hooded crows. 



To anyone who has studied these birds, they stand out 

 as symbols of alert and very much alive watchfulness, 

 rather than, as popular superstition once had it, of death ; 

 though why harshness of sound and darkness of shade 

 should so often be taken as the appropriate signs of 

 death, it is hard to understand. Surely whiteness and 

 light would be more in line with the age in which we 

 live. Thus we might see our funerals going their way 

 led by little maids with rosebuds in their hair, signifying 

 the dawning of the new rather than a sombre ending, 

 and how such a sight would relieve those whose morbid 

 dreads are so often centred on that last procession ! 



But to proceed — as described in the chapter dealing 



177 ^ 



