NORTHERN RAVEN 193 



And the ravens, besides many other birds, take full advantage of the 

 abundant and nutritious food. Sedately they walk, swinging their 

 bodies from side to side, or jump awkwardly back and forth, turning 

 the leaves and pieces of bark and decayed wood or boring after the 

 small but juicy morsels. During this period, and only then, one hears 

 their metallic click, sounding like the stroke of a light hammer on a 

 piece of heavy tin — one of the most remarkable sounds in the north 

 Wisconsin woodlands. No one lucky enough to hear it will pass it 

 without marvel, comment and inquiry as to the origin of it." 



Behavior. — The flight of the raven is so fully described under the 

 following subspecies that it is hardly necessary to say anything further 

 about it here. It shows great mastery of the air in its majestic flight; 

 it can stand almost motionless in the teeth of a gale, hover in the air 

 like a sparrow hawk, or take advantage of the upward current on a 

 steep hillside to rise and circle like a large hawk. Mr. Pearse tells 

 me that when these birds were so abundant there, there was a regular 

 flight line night and morning to and from their feeding grounds toward 

 the mountains in the interior of Vancouver Island ; they always passed 

 over sometime before dark and would return in the morning at a cor- 

 responding period after sunrise. They never w-ent by in a flock, but 

 in small parties of eight or more, once as many as 40. They probably 

 had some roost in the interior. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) 

 mention a roost discovered by Captain Blakiston near Fort Carlton; his 

 "attention was first drawn to it by noticing that about sunset all the 

 Ravens, from all quarters, were flying towards this point. Returning 

 to the fort in the evening by that quarter, he found a clump of aspen- 

 trees, none of them more than twenty-five feet high, filled with Ravens, 

 who, at his approach, took wing and flew round and round. He also 

 noted the wonderful regularity with which they repaired to their roost- 

 ing-place in the evening and left it again in the morning, by pairs, on 

 their day's hunt. They always left in the morning, within a minute 

 or two of the same time, earlier and earlier as the days grew longer, 

 on cold or cloudy mornings a little later, usually just half an hour 

 before sunrise." 



The raven is one of our most sagacious birds, crafty, resourceful, 

 adaptable, and quick to learn and profit by experience. Throughout 

 most of its range and under ordinary circumstances it is exceedingly 

 shy and wary ; it is almost impossible to get within gunshot of one in 

 the open ; one is seldom seen flying from its nest, as it hears the intruder 

 coming and departs ; I have never seen one return to even the vicinity 

 of its nest while I was near it. Yet it knows full well where and when 

 it is safe ; about the northern villages and stations, where it is appre- 

 ciated as a scavenger and not molested, it is as tame as any dooryard 



