CORVUS CORONE. 



449 



I give these quotations merely to show the varied use 

 Shakespeare makes of the raven — a favourite bird with him, as 

 well as Wordsworth ; but he revels amongst ravens and kites, 

 eagles and owls, falcons and hawks. Strange, Burns never 

 mentions it except once — when comparing a girl's black locks 

 to the raven's wing — 



" Her flowing locks, the raven's wing, 

 Adown her neck and bosom hing," 



as if Shakespeare and Wordsworth had lived amongst the 

 rugged rocks and mountains of Scotland, and our national bard 

 had " learned his tuneful trade" among the lakes and hills of 

 Cumberland. As I have headed these notes on this gloomy 

 bird by a verse from the singular poem upon it, copied by Poe 

 from the Persian poem, I shall conclude with two of its last 

 verses — 



" 'Prophet !' said I, ' thing of evil ! prophet still, if bird or devil ! 

 By that heaven that bends above us, by that God we both adore, 

 Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden 

 It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore — 

 Clasp a rare and sainted maiden whom the angels call Lenore? 

 Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.' 



" ' Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend !' I shrieked, 

 upstarting. 

 ' Get thee back into the tempest and the night's Plutonian shore ! 

 Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken ! 

 Leave my loneliness unbroken ! quit the bust above my door ! 

 Take thy beak from out my heart and take thy form from off my door.' 

 Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'" 



The Carrion Crow or Corby. 



Corvus Corone. (Linn.) 



" The fold stands empty in the drowned field, 

 And crows are fatted with the murrain flock." 



— Shakespeare. 



This bird might be called the lesser raven it is so like it both 

 in look and habits, only not so stoutly formed — the same deep 

 black and glossy reflections, iris also deep brown, legs also 

 armed with eight scutella, and basal half of the bill covered 

 with bristly feathers. The bill is 2 inches long, and though 



