268 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



offices, roosting in a tree in the shrubbery. Here, however, 

 they were soon discovered by their unnatural parents, who 

 for a long time used to come at early dawn and pounce 

 upon them with fierce cries. " In this case it was the step- 

 mother and not the mother that treated the young ravens so 

 unkindly, and the father may be charitably credited with 

 acting under the influence of his second wife. That the 

 Raven drives its young out of its nest as soon as they are 

 able to provide for themselves is true, but why they should 

 pursue them after they have become independent is not clear. 

 This habit of the ravens, as Mr. Morris points out, may be 

 referred to in the following quotations: "He giveth to the 

 beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry" (Psalm 

 CXLVII. 9). " Who provideth for the raven his food ? when 

 his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat " 

 (Job xxxvui. 41). 



The Tame The Raven may be easily tamed, and in pri- 

 Raven. va t e ijf e [ s always an amusement, if sometimes 

 an annoyance. Like all birds which are capable of imitating 

 sounds and which learn words and phrases it will often 

 "speak its lines," with startling appropriateness as to time 

 and place. Captain Brown tells a good story of a Raven 

 which belonged to a gentleman who resided on the borders 

 of the New Forest in Hampshire. On one occasion a 

 traveller who was passing through the forest was startled 

 by the frequent repetition of the words: "Fair play, gentle- 

 men! fair play! for God's sake, gentlemen, fair play!" and 

 upon tracing the source of the sound discovered the tame 

 raven defending himself from the attacks of two of his own 

 species. It is needless to say that the traveller rescued the 

 "gentleman" from the two "ruffians" who molested him. 

 Captain Brown also tells of a tame raven who was an 

 expert rat-catcher and whose method was to place a meat 

 bone in front of a rat hole and to stand on a ledge above 

 the hole, pouncing on the rat as soon as he emerged from 



