THE RAVEN. 137 



THE RAVEN, 



THE sable color of this bird is fully recognised in its Hebrew ap- 

 pellation, which is taken from oreb, the evening. Bochart has well 

 remarked, that the color of a crow or raven is not a dead, but a 

 glossy shining black, like silk, and so is properly a mixture of dark- 

 ness and splendor. Black appears to have been a color held in high 

 estimation by the ancients ; and black eyes and raven locks entered 

 into their ideas of female loveliness. In conformity with this opin- 

 ion is the declaration of the spouse, with reference to her beloved: 

 * His pendulous locks are as black as a raven,' Cant. v. 11. 



The raven is found in every region of the world. Strong and 

 hardy, it is uninfluenced by the changes of the weather; and when 

 other birds seem numbed with the cold, or pining with famine, the 

 raven is active and healthy, busily employed in prowling for prey, 

 or sporting in the coldest atmosphere. An active and greedy plun- 

 derer, nothing comes amiss to him ; whether his prey be living, or 

 long dead, it is all the same, he falls to with a voracious appetite, 

 and when he has gorged himself, flies to acquaint his fellows, that 

 they may participate in the spoil. 



Solomon appears to give a distinct character to some of the ravens 



in Palestine, when he says, * The eye that mooketh at his father, 



and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick 



it out, and the young eagles shall eat it,' Prov. xxx. 17. In this 



12* 



