122 



SUBKINGDOM VERTEBKATA. 



Fig. SOL 



Corvus cor 'ax ; Raven. 



Corvidae. The true 

 Crow and the Jay pass so 

 insensibly into each other 

 as hardly to present a di- 

 viding line. The Raven, 

 though rare in the Eastern 

 States, is generally dis- 

 tributed throughout North 

 America.* It exhib- 

 its wonderful sagacity in 



two feet in length, and, after winding several inches of one end many times around 

 the part of the branch still imbedded in the matting of the nest, drew all taut and 

 then fastened the other end by a tuck-under knot, to a fork 

 in the branch full ten inches above. Fig. 202 is en- 

 graved from a photograph of this curiously-mended nest, 

 kindly furnished by 

 the curator of the mu- pi q 20" 

 seum, Prof. J. W. P. 

 Jenks. 



* The Raven is generally consid* 

 Jered as of evil omen. It is easily 

 'tamed and taught to repeat sentences. 

 Pliny tells of one which was accus- 

 tomed to stand in a public place in 

 Rome, and call out the name of every 

 passer-by. There is a story related of 

 an awkward horseman who fell from his 

 seat, and at that moment a raven in the tree 

 above cried out, with its solemn voice, " How 

 silly I" Charles Dickens in his preface to Bar- 

 naby Rudgc, gives his amusing experience 

 with tame ravens. Our Common Crow ( Cor- 

 vus americanun) can be distinguished from the Raven by being much smaller and by 



Nest of Oriole. 



