and Ornithological Biography. 137 



and were we desirous of pointing out the most interesting of Au- 

 dubon's descriptions, we might select this as one of them. But 

 there are few, indeed, devoid of interest, or such as a person 

 having no special regard for ornithology might not read with 

 pleasure. We shall therefore take the first on the list, that of 

 the raven, as a specimen of the manner in which these biogra- 

 phies are written. 



" The Raven, Corvus Corax, Linn. Plate CI. 



" Leaving to compilers the task of repeating the mass of fabulous and uii- 

 edifying matter that has been accumulated in the course of ages, respecting 

 this and other remarkable species of birds, and arranging the materials which 

 I have obtained during years of laborious but gratifying observation, I now 

 resume my attempts to delineate the manners of the feathered denizens of 

 our American woods and plains. In treating of the birds represented in the 

 Second A''olume of my Plates, as I have done with respect to those of the 

 First, I will confine myself- to the particulars which I have been able to ga- 

 ther in the course of a life chiefly spent in studying the birds of my native 

 land, where I have had abundant opportunities of contemplating their man- 

 ners, and of admiring the manifestations of the glorious perfections of their 

 Omnipotent Creator. 



" There, amid the tall grass of the far-extended prairies of the West, in 

 the solemn forests of the North, on the heights of the midland mountains, by 

 the shores of the boundless ocean, and on the bosoin of the vast lakes and 

 magnificent rivers, have I sought to search out the things which have been 

 hidden since the creation of this wondrous world, or seen only by the naked 

 Indian, who has, for unknown ages, dwelt in the gorgeous but melancholy 

 wilderness. Who is the stranger to my own dear country that can form an 

 adequate conception of the extent of its primeval woods, — of the glory of 

 those columnar trunks, that for centuries have waved in the breeze, and re- 

 sisted the shock of the tempest, — of the vast bays of our Atlantic coasts, re- 

 plenished by thousands of streams, differing in magnitude, as differ the stars 

 that sparkle in the expanse of the pure heavens, — of the diversity of aspect 

 in our western plains, our sandy southern shores, interspersed with reedy 

 swamps, and the cliffs that protect our eastern coasts, — of the rapid currents 

 of the Mexican Gulf, and the rushing tide-streams of the Bay of Fundy, — 

 of our ocean-lakes, our mighty rivers, our thundering cataracts, our majestic 

 mountains, rearing their snowy heads into the calm regions of the clear cold 

 sky ? Would that I could delineate to you the varied features of that loved 

 land ! But, unwilling, as I always am, to attempt the description of objects 

 beyond my comprehension, you will, I hope, allow me to tell you all that I 

 know of those which I have admired in youth, and studied in manhood, — for 

 the acquisition of which I have braved the enervating heals of the south, and 

 the cramping colds of the north, penetrated the tangled cane-swamp, thrid the 

 dubious trail of the silent forest, paddled my canoe in the creeks of the marshy 



