234 Mr. J. H. Gurney on the [Ibis, 



in the almost supernatural powers of Ravens was something 

 more than idle folk-lore is certain, although at the present 

 time it may not be easy to support that faith by anything 

 very tangible. Nevertheless there are a few anecdotes 

 confirmatory of the Raven's power which seem to be authentic 

 enough, of which the following is one : — 



In May 1871, Mr. E. Baker of Merse in Wiltshire was 

 attending the funeral of two children who had died from 

 diphtheria. The road to be followed lay along the Downs 

 for a mile or more and the hearse had not proceeded far 

 when two Ravens made their appearance. These sable birds, 

 which seventy years ago were not uncommon in Wiltshire, 

 accompanied the mourners most of the way, and attracted 

 attention by making repeated stoops at the coffins, leaving 

 no doubt in Mr. Baker's mind that their power of scent had 

 detected what was inside them *. After reading this narrative 

 it is difficult to treat the long-established belief about Ravens 

 as a fable ; here it is quite certain that sight could have been 

 of no avail as the coffins were closed, and the Ravens could 

 only have realised what their contents were by scent. 



Other witnesses to their power of scent might be called, 

 but they are not all satisfactory, so I will limit myself 

 to four. 



William Hogg of Peebleshire, sheepmaster, was a great 

 friend of Macgillivray's, and a very observant naturalist. 

 He tells us how, in his part of Scotland, in the early part of 

 the nineteenth century, a sheep on the hills could not be 

 dead many minutes before the Ravens would find itf. 

 Nowadays there are so few Ravens left that a sheep's carcass 

 might lie unheeded, but a hundred years ago it was different, 

 when these fine birds had not been systematically poisoned 

 throughout the countryside. 



" It is a common belief," says Mrs. Saxby, writing of the 

 folk-lore of the Shetlandcrs whom from long residence she 



* This singular story is told by the Rev. A. P. Morres in the 

 ' Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine ' for 1873 (vol. xviii. p. 299). 



t ' History of British Birds,' by W. Macgillivray, i. p. 510, and 

 ' Zoologist; 1843, p. 216. 



