CORVUS CORAX. 441 



purpose, in harmony with Nature's design ;* and not so pitiful 

 as to see man — lordly man, " the paragon of animals" — the 

 possessor of reason, in the name of Christ and civilisation, 

 preying on the lands of others and shooting down his weaker 

 brother man. Bat I fear, like the negro and the savage, or the 

 "sick man" in Turkey, that the lambs had been very sickly 

 before their eyes were picked out ; for, as the Bastard says in 

 " King John"— 



" Vast confusion waits 

 (As doth a raven on a sick- fallen beast) 

 The imminent decay of wrested pomp." 



And Cassius, speaking of the two eagles which followed the 

 Eoman Army, said — 



" This morning are they fled away and gone, 

 And in their stead do ravens, croios, and kites 

 Fly o'er our heads, and downwards look at us 

 As we were sickly prey." 



But Nature seldom outrages herself so far as commit acts of 

 cruelty for cruelty's sake. The inexorable law of life — the 

 strong preying on the weak — must be obeyed, but piecemeal 

 mutilation is no part of her great beneficent plan ; but if so, 

 then Nature and not the raven is to blame. The only parallel 

 I know is that recorded of the savages of Abyssinia, who are 

 said to have cut steaks off the living ox and kept the beast 

 alive for further use ; or the gradual bleeding of the Christian's 

 calf to make the veal whiter for the Christian stomach ; or 

 the equally ingenious plan of nailing the feet of geese or 

 turkeys to the floor to make them fatter for the Christmas 

 dinner. But the chief food of the raven is carrion and offal of 

 all kinds, carcases of sheep, cattle, dogs, cats, &c. — from a 

 mouse to a dead horse, from a pea to a potato, from a sprat to a 

 whale — and dead fishes of all kinds lying on the seashore ; but 

 being omnivorous, and having a wide scope of flight, like the 

 carrion and hoody crows, it also preys upon weak young 

 quadrupeds and birds, or what it can get, and sometimes 

 commits havoc even on barley. As an instance of its varied 

 food — " A large herd of grampus whales were driven ashore on 

 the Island of Pabbay, in the Sound of Harris. A great number 



* Butler says in " Hudibras"— 



" So Naturalists find out, a flea 

 Has other fleas that on him prey : 

 These too have other fleas to bite 'em- 

 Aud so proceeds, ad infinitum." 



2d 



