290 THE CARRION CROW. 



times gone by, should be exposed to unrelenting persecution in our 

 own days of professed philanthropy. His noble aspect, his aerial 

 evolutions, and his wonderful modulations of voice, all contribute to 

 render him an ornament to any gentleman's park. He can scarcely 

 be styled a bird of rapine, in the strict sense of the word ; for, in the 

 few inland parts of this country where he is still protected, we hear 

 of no very alarming acts of depredation on his part. A stray 

 chicken or so, during the time that he is obliged to feed his young 

 a rickety lamb which would never make mutton a leveret started 

 from her seat by the village mole-catcher make up nearly the whole 

 amount of the raven's plunder. For my own part, I would freely 

 give him these ; ay, and a dozen pheasants annually to boot, if he 

 would but visit us again, and once more attempt to take up a per- 

 manent abode amongst us. 



THE CARRION CROW. 



"Inter aves albas, vetuit consistere corvum." Ovid, Mit. 



" The crow was order'd not to hold a place 

 "Mid whiter favourites of the feather'd race." 



THIS warrior bird is always held up to public execration. The very 

 word carrion, attached to his name, carries something disgusting with 

 it ; and no one ever shows him any kindness. Though he certainly 

 has his vices, still he has his virtues too ; and it would be a pity if 

 the general odium in which he is held should be the means, one day 

 or other, of blotting out his name from the page of our British orni- 

 thology. With great propriety, he might be styled the lesser raven in 

 our catalogue of native birds ; for, to all appearance, he is a raven ; 

 and I should wish to see his name changed, were I not devoutly 

 attached to the nomenclature established by the wisdom of our 

 ancestors. 



The carrion crow is a very early riser; and long before the rook is 



