NORTHERN RAVEN 197 



anxiety by stretching and craning their necks in all directions, and 

 emitting many peculiar, plaintive sounds. At such times it was possible 

 to approach them very closely u'ithout taking much precaution; the 

 birds were plainly too frightened to be watchful. 



"In localities where ravens are not persecuted and feel secure, they 

 come very near the buildings and become bold. They will attack a cat 

 within sight of a dwelling and take away whatever little game the cat 

 might be carrying at the time. Early one morning, when our big white 

 tomcat was on the way home with something, apparently a meadow 

 mouse, and no more than 100 feet away, he was suddenly attacked by a 

 pair of ravens with a design on that mouse. Without warning the two 

 big birds, which must have been sitting on a tree nearby, dived at the 

 big cat, which, surprised and not knowing what was happening, gave an 

 enormous leap, dropped the mouse and ran. This, of course, was what 

 the birds wanted. Picking up the mouse and disappearing among the 

 tree tops, they went faster than I was able to tell." 



Voice. — The raven has a variety of notes. As I recorded it many 

 years ago, on the coast of Maine, its commonest note seemed to be a 

 loud croak, deep-toned, and audible at a great distance, croake-croake ; 

 we also heard occasionally a hoarse croo-croo, not so loud or so pene- 

 trating; on one occasion we recorded a richer, more musical note, 

 croang-croang, with the resonance of a deep-toned bell, on a lower key 

 than the other notes, less harsh and rather pleasing, and sometimes end- 

 ing in a loud cluck. Then there was the short, guttural cur-ruk or cruk, 

 with the rolling r's, given mostly on the wing, singly or repeated 

 several times. 



Mr. Harlow (1922) has heard "a very distinct hollow, sepulchral 

 laugh 'haw-haw-haw-haw.' " And he says : "During the period of court- 

 ship and incubation there are two distinct notes that I have not heard at 

 any other time. One is a soft 'crawk,' which the male gives to the female 

 when he is sitting near her while she is on the nest ledge or incubating. 

 The other is a series of 'crawks' given while on the wing and with 

 rarely a note best expressed by the syllables 'ge-lick-ge-lee' given either 

 between the 'crawks' or still more rarely as a single note." 



J. Dewey Soper (1928) gives the raven credit for considerable musical 

 versatility. He writes : "The northern raven possesses a musical, gut- 

 tural note with a slightly bell-like quality. This note is employed at times 

 throughout the year. The raven at any time may, also, utter a strange 

 call like thung-thimg-thung , which bears a remarkable resemblance to 

 the mellow twang of a tuning-fork, being, like it, rich, full, vibrant, and 

 musical. Another expression has a metallic, liquid-like quality after the 

 style of the red-winged blackbird, though greatly magnified in volume. 



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