202 RAVENS. 



on the outside of the cover, seized every one that came 

 in his way; when the dog immediately hastened to his 

 assistance, and by their joint efforts nothing escaped. 

 On various occasions the Raven has proved of more use 

 than a ferret, and has been known to enter a barn with 

 several dogs, and enjoy the sport of rat-hunting. The 

 sagacity of these birds is certainly quite extraordinary, 

 and might almost lead us to suppose that they were 

 gifted with reasoning powers. 



It would be needless to enumerate the many instances 

 which might be mentioned. We must quote a few, 

 commencing with one communicated by a friend. All 

 birds, we know, have an instinctive faculty of finding their 

 way, when on the wing, to certain spots they have been 

 accustomed to frequent, in which it might be supposed 

 that eye-sight, from high elevation, might materially 

 assist them; but in the following case it will be seen, that 

 the inhabitants of the air are not in all cases indebted 

 to this sense for discovering their former abodes, but 

 can like dogs and various other quadrupeds, and even 

 turtles, as we have before remarked, find their way by 

 some unknown faculty, to places from which they have 

 been removed. A few years ago a gentleman, near 

 Chapel-le-Frith, in Derbyshire, took a young Raven from 

 its nest, and kept it in an out-building for some months ; 

 its wings were then clipped, and it was allowed to go at 

 large. It soon became well known for a mile round, 

 regularly visiting every farm-house within that distance 

 whenever a pig was killed, when it was always rewarded 

 with some tit-bits. Soon after the death of its owner, 

 about three years ago, the Raven was given to a sur- 

 geon, resident in Stockport, Cheshire, who kept it chained 

 by the leg for about twelve months ; he then gave it its 

 liberty, and as before it wandered about near home, but 

 not with the same success, for its thigh was one day 

 broken by some idle, thoughtless boys who threw stones 

 at it. The fracture was reduced, the Raven recovered, 

 and then again took to rambling about for a few weeks, 



