STORIES OF CROWS. 477 
other animals. These facts are confirmed by numerous anecdotes 
related by naturalists of undoubted veracity. 
Pliny speaks of a raven which established itself in one of the 
public places of Rome, and called out the name of each passer-by, 
from the emperor to the humblest citizen. We have all laughed 
heartily at the recital of an adventure which happened to an awkward 
horseman, who !ost his seat, while a raven perched on a branch of a 
tree above him cried out with a solemn voice, “ How silly !” 
Dr. Franklin thus speaks of a raven of his acquaintance which 
had been brought up at a country inn :—“ It had,” he says, “‘ great 
recollection of persons, and knew perfectly all the coachmen, with 
whom it lived on the greatest intimacy. With its special friends it 
took certain innocent liberties, such as mounting on the top of their 
carriage and riding out with them until it met some other driver 
with which it was on terms of similarly close friendship, when it 
would return home.” ‘The same raven had unusual sympathy with 
dogs in general, and especially those which happened to be lame. 
These it loaded with the most delicate attentions, keeping them 
company, and carrying them bones to gnaw. ‘This excessive kind- 
ness to animals which are rarely in the good graces of ravens arose 
from this bird having been reared along with a dog, for which it 
entertained such strong regard, that it attended it with unremitting 
assiduity when it had the misfortune to break its leg. 
The same author mentions another raven which was captured in 
Russia, and came to be confined in the Jardin des Plantes of Paris. 
It recognised Dr. Monin when he stopped accidentally before its 
cage. It had belonged to him ten years back, and when brought 
before its old master it leaped upon his shoulder and covered him 
with caresses. The doctor reclaimed his property, and the bird was 
henceforth an ornament to his house near Blois, where it learnt to 
address the country-people as “great hogs.” Dr. Franklin raised 
one of these birds himself, which showed wonderful powers of imi- 
tation. ‘ He called himself Jacob. Sometimes it made such a noise 
at the bottom of the stairs that you could only imagine it was caused 
by a party of three or four children quarrelling with great violence ; 
at other times it would imitate the crowing of a cock, the mewing of 
a cat, the barking of a dog, or the sound produced by a rattle for 
_ frightening away birds from a wheat-field; then a silence would 
ensue ; but soon after the crying of a child of two years of age would 
be mimicked ; ‘Jacob! Jacob!’ its own name, probably it would 
then call, repeating the cry at first in a grave tone, then with shriller 
intonation and more vociferously ; again another silence ; but after 2 
