THE CHOUGH. 239 



members of the brute creation whose instinct amounts to 

 something more than a formal compliance with certain 

 laws which the rational creation has arbitrarily set down 

 for their government. In mountainous districts, its food 

 probably consists mainly of berries ; on our sea-coast, 

 where such fare is of rare occurrence, insects and the 

 rejectamenta of the sea-shore enter largely into its diet. 

 It builds its nest of sticks, and lines it with wool and 

 hair, preferring a cleft in a rock, but not refusing any old 

 ruin conveniently situated for its purpose. It lays four 

 or five eggs. 



THE RAVEN. 



CORVUS CORAX. 



Plumage black with purple reflections; tail rounded, black, extending two 

 inches beyond the closed wings ; beak strong, black as weU as the feet ; iris 

 with two circles, the inner grey, the outer ash-brown. Length twenty-five 

 inches ; width four feet. Eggs dirty green, spotted and speckled with brown. 



THE Eaven, the largest of the Corvidse, and possessing in 

 an eminent degree all the characteristics of its tribe except 

 sociability, is the bird which beyond all others has been 

 regarded with feelings of awe by the superstitious in all 

 ages. In both instances in which specific mention of it 

 occurs in Holy Writ, it is singled out from among other 

 birds as gifted with a mysterious intelligence. Sent forth 

 by Noah when the ark rested on the mountains or Ararat, 

 it found a congenial home among the lonely crags strewed 

 with the carcases of drowned animals, and by failing to 

 return, announced to the patriarch that a portion of the 

 earth, though not one fit for his immediate habitation, was 

 uncovered by the waters. At a subsequent period, honoured 

 with the mission of supplying the persecuted prophet with 

 food, it was taught to suppress its voracious instinct by the 

 God who gave it. The Raven figures prominently in most 

 heathen mythologies, and is almost everywhere regarded' 



