NORTHERN RAVEN. 121 



has been generally despised and feared by the superstitious 

 even more than the nocturnal Owl, though he prowls abroad in 

 open day. He may be considered as holding a relation to the 

 birds of prey, feeding not only on carrion, but occasionally 

 seizing on weakly lambs, young hares or rabbits, and seems 

 indeed to give a preference to animal food ; but at the same 

 time, he is able to live on all kinds of fruits and grain, as well 

 as insects, earth-worms, even dead fish, and in addition to all, 

 is particularly fond of eggs, so that no animal seems more truly 

 omnivorous than the Raven. 



If we take into consideration his indiscriminating voracity, 

 sombre livery, discordant, croaking cry, with his ignoble, wild, 

 and funereal aspect, we need not be surprised that in times of 

 ignorance and error he should have been so generally regarded 

 as an object of disgust and fear. He stood pre-eminent in the 

 list of sinister birds, or those whose only premonition was the 

 announcing of misfortunes ; and, strange to tell, there are many 

 people yet in Europe, even in this enlightened age, who trem- 

 ble and become uneasy at the sound of his harmless croaking. 

 According to Adair, the Southern aborigines also invoke the 

 Raven for those who are sick, mimicking his voice ; and the 

 natives of the Missouri, assuming black as their emblem of 

 war, decorate themselves on those occasions with the plumes 

 of this dark bird. But all the knowledge of the future, or in- 

 terest in destiny, possessed by the Raven, like that of other 

 inhabitants of the air, is bounded by an instinctive feeling of 

 the changes which are about to happen in the atmosphere, and 

 which he has the faculty of announcing by certain cries and 

 actions produced by these external impressions. In the south- 

 ern provinces of Sweden, as Linnaeus remarks, when the sky is 

 serene the Raven flies very high and utters a hollow sound, 

 like the word clong, which is heard to a great distance. Some- 

 times he has been seen in the midst of a thunder-storm with 

 the electric fire streaming from the extremity of his bill, — a 

 natural though extraordinary phenomenon, sufficient to terrify 

 the superstitious and to stamp the harmless subject of it with 

 the imaginary traits and attributes of a demon. 



