RAVEN 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.2 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. 
1 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 had 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 exwviz 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. 
2 Pied examples are not at all uncommon in some localities and wholly 
white varieties are said to have been seen. 
3 American birds have been described as forming a distinct species under 
