196 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the shell to the ground, although on several instances I have seen the 

 birds dive hastily after the falling shell and capture it in their beaks 

 before it reached the ground, apparently in sport." 



Team play often enters into the raven's activities. B. J. Bretherton 

 wrote to Major Bendire (1895): *T saw a native dog one day with a 

 bone which he vainly endeavored to eat. While so engaged he was 

 espied by a Raven, who flew down and tried to scare the dog by loud 

 cawing, in which he was shortly afterwards assisted by another, both 

 birds sidling up to the dog's head until they were barely out of his reach. 

 Just at this time a third Raven appeared on the scene and surveyed the 

 situation from an adjacent fence, but soon flew down behind the dog 

 and advanced until within reach of his tail, which he seized so roughly 

 that the dog turned for an instant to snap at him, and at the same 

 moment the bone was snatched away by one of the Ravens at his head." 



Lucien M. Turner (MS.) relates the following performance that he 

 witnessed on the banks of the Koksoak River: "A few miles below the 

 falls on the river I saw at one time over a hundred of these birds. The 

 banks of the river at this locality were very high and crumbling with 

 the process of freezing during the night and thawing during the day. 

 Here the birds resorted to have the fun of coasting down this hillside. 

 A dozen at a time would stand, either sidewise or with their heads up- 

 ward, and start down with the rolling pebbles and clay, each bird con- 

 stantly uttering its harsh croak, which reverberated among the hills 

 until the air was filled with their coarse notes. This noise was heard 

 over a mile before we paddled up to the birds, where we stopped to 

 v/itness their amusement. The trees in the vicinity contained numbers 

 of ravens aiding the sport with their cries of approval, or taking their 

 turns as the others became tired." 



Referring to its character, he says: "The raven is bold and fearless 

 when able to cope with an adversary and rarely fails to drive any in- 

 truder but man from the locality. I have seen a single bird successfully 

 attack a white gyrfalcon and cause it to forsake the hillside adopted by 

 the raven for its home. On the other hand, the raven is one of the most 

 cowardly birds, rarely attacking without certainty of superiority in itself, 

 or trusting to its harsh notes to call assistance from its comrades." 



Mr. Zirrer (MS.) adds the following notes on the behavior of ravens: 

 "Although they brave storms when no other bird ventures in the open, 

 they are, especially the young, much afraid of the heavy summer thunder- 

 storms. Again and again I have noticed several of them, young birds I 

 presume, sitting during the thunder, lightning, and heavy downpour on 

 a strong, horizontal, lower branch of a big tree, under the protective 

 canopy of densely leaved branches above, expressing all their fear and 



