118 KAVEN. 



, " As wicked dew, as e'er my mother brushed, 



With Raven's feather, from unwholesome fen, 

 Drop on you both !"* 



The ferocious wife of Macbeth, on being advised of the approach of 

 Duncan, whose death she had conspired, thus exclaims : 



" The Raven himself is hoarse, 

 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan, 

 Under my battlements !''t 



The Moor of Venice says : 



" It comes o'er my memory. 

 As doth the Raven o'er the infected house, 

 Boding to all."t 



The last quotation alludes to the supposed habit of this bird's flying 

 over those houses which contain the sick, whose dissolution is at hand, 

 and thereby announced. Thus Marlowe, in the Jew of Malta, as cited 

 by Malone : 



" The sad presaging Raven tolls 

 The sick man's passport in her hollow beak. 

 And in the shadow of the silent night 

 Doth shake contagion from her sable wing." 



But it is the province of philosophy to dispel those illusions which 

 bewilder the mind, by pointing out the simple truths which Nature has 

 been at no pains to conceal, but which the folly of mankind has shrouded 

 in all the obscurity of mystery. 



The Raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, but is more 

 common in the interior. On the lakes, and particularly in the neigh- 

 borhood of the Falls of the river Niagara, they are numerous ; and it is 

 a remarkable fact, that where they so abound, the Common Crow, O. 

 corone, seldom makes its appearance ; being intimidated, it is conjec- 

 tured, by the superior size and strength of the former, or by an antipa- 

 thy which the two species manifest towards each other. This I had an 

 opportunity of observing myself, in a journey during the months of 

 August and September, along the lakes Erie and Ontario. The Ravens 

 were seen every day, prowling about in search of the dead fish, which 

 the waves are continually casting ashore, and which afford them an 

 abundance of a favorite food ; but I did not see or hear a single Crow 

 within several miles of the lakes ; and but very few through the whole 

 of the Genesee country. 



* Tempest, act i., scene 2. f Act i., scene 5. 



X Othello, act iv., scene 1. 



