12 THE CROW FAMILY 



by disinterring all the cheese and half-pence he had buried in the 

 garden a work of immense labour and energy, to which he devoted 

 all the energies of his mind. When he had achieved this task, he 

 applied himself to the acquisition of stable language, in which he 

 became such an adept that he would perch outside my window 

 and drive imaginary horses with great skill all day." This bird 

 succumbed also to his truly ravenous appetite, his end being 

 hastened by the consumption, in splinters, of the greater part of a 

 wooden staircase of six steps and a landing. To these two birds 

 Dickens added a third, the creation of his own rich imagination, 

 the immortal Grip of Barnaby Rudge, the bird that had more wit 

 than its master, that was indeed the master of its master. 



It is curious that the raven, though able, as above noted, to 

 mimic the sounds it hears, and possessing a syrinx or voice organ as 

 complex as that of some of the best songsters, is nevertheless 

 without what, in a musical sense, may be called a song. Like 

 the rook, it does occasionally, in its jovial moods, pour forth a 

 continuous succession of varied notes, but these efforts are more 

 remarkable for unconscious humour than musical quality. Owing 

 no doubt to the comparative scarcity and shyness of the species in 

 our country, no British record exists, as far as I am aware, of this 

 attempt at a song. It has, however, been described both by an 

 American and a Swiss naturalist. 



The former, Dr. Coues, writing of the abundance of ravens 

 round Fort Whipple in the 'seventies, states that one of the favourite 

 pastimes of the bird, when comfortably replete, was to perch on the 

 top of some pine, and there lift up its voice, the performance usually 

 beginning with a loud and commanding caw. This was intended, 

 presumably, to engage the attention of its public. After a " compla- 

 cent chuckle " and an introductory soliloquy scarcely audible from 

 below, there came a series of loud notes like the filing of a saw, ending 

 with the inimitable cork-drawing pops for which the species is famous. 1 



1 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, History of North American Birds, 1874, vol. ii. 



