RAVEN. 501 



Female. — The female is similar to the male, but somewhat 

 smaller, and having the gular feathers less elongated. 

 Length 25 inches; extent of wings 49. 



Variations. — I have not observed any remarkable variations 

 in the individuals which I have handled ; but I once saw a 

 raven in Harris, that was patched w^itli w^hite. Another 

 entirely white was credibly reported to me to have been seen in 

 the island of Pabbay. Messrs. Vieillot and Temminck have dis- 

 tinguished as a species a raven having the head, throat, abdo- 

 men, lower tail-coverts, and the greater part of the wings, 

 white, the other parts as described above. This alleged species, 

 wdiich M. Temminck, how^ever, admits only " provisoirement," 

 is also said to have been found entirely white. "It is with 

 some doubt," he remarks, " that I introduce this species into 

 the catalogue of the birds of Europe. The individuals which 

 I have seen have a more pow^erful bill, and are altogether of a 

 larger size than our Raven." — "The circumstance which leads 

 me to consider it provisorily as a species is, that Iceland abounds 

 in Ravens, and that M. Faber asserts that the variegated in- 

 dividuals seen in the Feroe Isles do not occur there. Were it 

 merely a variety of Corvus Corax peculiar to the northern 

 regions, Iceland, Norway, the Orkneys, and the north of Asia, 

 which are stocked with black Ravens, would supply examples 

 of it. All the individuals alluded to, and those seen by me, have 

 come from Feroe." I am not aware that any variegated Ravens 

 have ever been seen in Britain, except the one mentioned 

 above, which I frequently saw on the sand banks at North- 

 town, in the island of Harris ; but it, and the white individual 

 seen in Pabbay by the late Mr. Macniel, and many other per- 

 sons, tend to counteract the tendency of M. Temminck's 

 reasoning. 



When new% the feathers of the upper parts are glossed with 

 steel-blue, which by exposure changes to purplish-blue. To- 

 wards the period of moulting, the plumage in general becomes 

 tinged with reddish-purple. 



Habits. — The Raven is a remarkably grave and sedate bird. 



