446 



THE RAVEN. 



are told of the raven's sagacity when domesticated. I knew of 

 one which brought every bone it could find to the kennel of a 

 mastiff which had a broken leg, as if it knew the dog could not 

 provide for itself. Of another that got nearly all the servants 

 into trouble by hiding a number of silver spoons, &c, until 

 Master Ralph the raven was seen running off with one to an 

 obscure nook, where all the missing articles were found. Mr 

 Mackay, hotel-keeper, Overscraig, near Lairgs, had one lately 

 whose sagacity he used to show off. One day he gave it his 

 pocket-knife, with the signal to go and hide it. Instead of 

 performing the trick in the usual way the raven swallowed it, 

 and turned to Mr Mackay with a knowing look, as if to say, 

 " Will that do ?" The onlookers were convulsed with laughter 

 at the chagrined look of its master at the supposed loss of his 

 knife. It was 3 J inches long, but it was ejected and got next 

 day. A tradesman here has a very fine one, which he keeps in 

 a large wire cage. It was got with three others out of a nest on 

 the Minagraif Hills, Kirkcudbrightshire, by the gamekeeper. 

 It is now twenty years old ; the rest died. On the keeper's 

 death the widow gave it to her St Andrews friend. Before he 

 got it it was kept next the kennel near the keeper's house, 

 where it learned to speak a lot of sentences which it picked up 

 from the keeper speaking to his son Johnny, such as, " Are you 

 there, Johnny ? are you there, Johnny V' and if Johnny did not 

 come quickly — " Come awa', Jock !" was angrily said, which 

 this raven still perfectly imitates, and when needing food it also 

 cries, " Come awa', come awa' ! Johnny's hungry !" It also 

 whistles like the keeper on his dogs, and cries, " Kennel up ! 

 kennel up !" and, as if speaking to tramps, cries, " Who's there % 

 what do you want ? Get out ! kennel up !" &c. When he 

 throws a pigeon's egg, it catches it with unerring certainty in 

 its bill, rolls it in its mouth, flies down, pierces a small hole, and 

 sucks it clean, and eats every bit of the shell. 



The male is 26 inches long by 52 inches in extent of wings; 

 female, 25 in. by 49 in. It is said to live about 100 years. 

 " Black as the raven's wing" is an apt expression, for it is so 

 intensely black as to be glossed with purplish-blue reflections on 

 the upper parts and greenish-blue on the under ; from point of 

 beak to tip of tail — including legs, feet, and claws — all is black ; 

 iris, dark brown. Shakespeare makes Ulysses say, " The raven 

 chides blackness." Yet there is one now in the public gardens 

 of Berlin pure white, with pink eyes, beak, and legs. The rest 

 of the birds are terrified, and cower away from him as from a 



