" WELL, WHO ARE YOU?" in 



We have just called the raven our " friend," nor are we at all 

 ashamed so to designate a bird whom we have known long, and 

 regarding whom, if other people speak nothing but evil, we at least 

 can speak a great deal that is good. There is a well-known proverb 

 to the effect that a certain potentate of sable hue is not so black as 

 he is painted, nor is the raven. First of all, he is an apt scholar, 

 and a bird generally of much sagacity, of long memory, and ready 

 wit. It is on record that on one occasion when the Emperor 

 Augustus was returning victorious from a battlefield, a tame raven 

 that had received his lesson, and remembered it to the letter, 

 alighted on the conqueror's chariot, and saluted him in these words 

 Ave Ccesar, Victor, Imperator ! The Emperor was pleased, as he 

 well might be, and ordered the raven a handsome pension for life. 

 Bechstein, who probably knew more about the habits and economy 

 of ravens, especially in their tame state, than any other ornithologist 

 before his day or since, vouches for the facility with which they 

 may be taught to speak, and for their sagacity and docility generally. 

 He tells the following amusing story : " A very clever raven was 

 kept at a nobleman's residence in the district of Mannsfeldt. 

 Among other things he could say, ' Well, who are you 1 ' very 

 strongly and distinctly. One day, as he was walking about among 

 the grass in the garden, he observed a setter dog which remained 

 near him, and kept constantly walking after him. Not liking to 

 be thus watched and followed, the raven turned rapidly round and 

 sternly exclaimed, ' Well, who are you 1 ' The dog was alarmed at 

 this, hung his tail, and ran hastily away, and not until he had 

 gained a considerable distance did he turn round and howL" The 

 raven, besides, is a thorough anti-Mormonite, and wouldn't live in 

 Utah for the world. If he visits the polygamist colony at all, it is 

 always under protest against the institutions of that delectable 

 land, and to be ready to pick the bones of the first many-wived 

 " elder " he may catch in articulo mortis. Kather should the raven 



