RA VEN 767 



Notwithstanding all this, however, the Raven has now fallen upon 

 evil days. The reverence with which it was once regarded has all 

 but vanished, and has been very generally succeeded by persecu- 

 tion, which in many districts has produced actual extirpation, so 

 that it is threatened with extinction, save in the wildest and most 

 unpeopled districts.^ 



The Raven breeds very early in the year, in England resorting 

 to its nest, which is usually an ancient if not an ancestral structure, 

 about the middle or towards the end of January. Therein are 

 laid from five to seven eggs of the common Corvine coloration, 

 and the young are hatched before the end of February. In more 

 northern countries the breeding-season is naturally delayed, but 

 everywhere this species is almost if not quite the earliest of birds 

 to enter upon the business of perpetuating its kind. The Raven 

 measures about 26 inches in length, and has an expanse of wing 

 considerably exceeding a yard. Its bill and feet are black, and 

 the same may be said of its whole plumage, but the feathers of the 

 upper parts as well as of the breast are very glossy, reflecting a 

 bright purple or steel-blue.^ The species inhabits the whole of 

 Europe, and the northern if not the central parts of Asia ; but in 

 the latter continent its southern range is not well determined. In 

 America ^ it is, or used to be, found from the shores of the Polar 



played its part in the mythology of the Red Indian ; and none can -wonder that 

 all this should be so, since, wherever it occurs and more especially wherever it 

 is numerous, as in ancient times and in thinly-peopled countries it must have 

 been, its size, appearance and fearless habits would be sure to attract especial 

 attention. Nor has this attention wholly ceased with the advance of en- 

 lightenment, for both in prose and verse, from the time of Shakespear to that 

 of Poe and Dickens, the Raven has often figured, and generally without the 

 amount of misrepresentation which is the fate of most animals which celebrated 

 writers condescend to notice. 



^ That all lovers of nature should take what steps they can to arrest this 

 sad fate is a belief which I strongly hold. Without attempting to deny the 

 loss which in some cases is inflicted upon the rearers of cattle by Ravens, it is 

 an enormous mistake to suppose that the neighbourhood of a pair of these 

 birds is invariably detrimental. On this point I can speak from experience. 

 For many years I liad an intimate knowledge of a pair occupying an inland 

 locality surrounded by valuable flocks of sheep, and abounding in rabbits and 

 game, and had ample opportunities, which I never neglected, of repeatedly 

 examining the pellets of bones and exuvise that these, like all other carnivorous 

 birds, cast up. I thus found that this pair of Ravens fed almost exclusively 

 on Moles. Soon after I moved from the neighbourhood in which they lived 

 the unreasoning zeal of a gamekeeper (against, it is believed, the orders of his 

 master) put an end to this interesting couple — the last of their species which 

 inhabited the county. 



^ Pied examples are not at all uncommon in some localities and wholly 

 white varieties are said to have been seen. 



^ American birds have been described as forming a distinct species under 



