216 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
crease their attentions, and the spark of life only 
expires when the material is exhausted.’””* 
The birds most celebrated for longevity are the 
raven, the pelican, and the eagle, though the evi- 
dence which we have met with, in proof of the com- 
mon opinion respecting the long life of these birds, 
is nc; always so satisfactory as we could wish. To 
these may be added the skylark, which has been 
known to live in a cage, as Olina says, ten years ; 
while Raczynski mentions an instance in which one 
lived twenty-four years. 
In his chapter on ‘* The Longest Lives,” Pliny 
says, “ Hesiod (the first writer, as I take it, who 
hath treated of this argument, and yet like a poet), 
in his fabulous discourse touching the age of man, 
said, forsooth, that a crow lives nine times as long 
as we; and harts or stags four times as long as 
he, but ravens thrice as long as they.” If we 
estimate accordingly a generation at thirty years, 
the age of the crow would be 270 years, that of the 
stag 1080 years, and that of the raven 3240 years ; 
but if we interpret the terms used by both Hesiod 
and Pliny to signify a year, we should then have the 
life of the crow nine years, and of the raven 108, 
which is probably nearer the truth. 
** No person, as far as I know,” says Montbeil- 
lard, “‘ has determined the age at which the young 
ravens have acquired their full growth and are ca- 
pable of propagating. If in birds, as in quadru- 
peds, each period of life was proportional to the 
total space of existence, we might suppose that the 
crows required many years to reach their adult state, 
though it seems well ascertained that this bird 
sometimes lives a century or more. In many cities 
of France they have been known to attain to that 
distant period; and in all countries and all ages 
they have been reckoned as birds extremely long- 
* Journ. of a Nat., p. 181, lst edit. 
