THE CROW TRIBE. 



The RAVEN (Corvus Cor ax). So many anecdotes 

 are told of this bird, to which many strange supersti- 

 tions are attached, that there is no need to multiply 

 proofs of its great sagacity and cunning. Shepherds 

 and gamekeepers wage war against it ; the former 

 with good reason, as they declare that it watches any 

 weakly animal among their flock, and that if a lamb 

 seems very feeble and likely to die, the Raven will 

 accelerate matters by attacking its eyes. Mr. Knox 

 defends it from the enmity of gamekeepers, declaring 

 that the Raven is the friend of those who desire to 

 preserve game, because it will not allow any weasel, 

 stoat, or bird of prey to approach the neighbourhood 

 of its nest; and he asserts that, although pheasants 

 and hares abounded in the immediate vicinity of a pair 

 of Ravens which used to breed every year in Burton 

 Park, Sussex, neither they nor their young were ever 

 touched by them, but they lived upon the flesh of 

 dead animals, rats, and rabbits, brought from a long 

 distance. Probably they prefer carrion if they can 

 get it, but they seem to have a very indiscriminating 



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