THE RAVEN 13 



The song of the Swiss bird, a captive specimen, lacked the 

 introductory, self-advertising caw of the American, an omission due 

 perhaps to the sobering effect of an indoor sedentary life and not to 

 any national divergence in character. The central features were the 

 same, except that the introductory soliloquy was observed to be 

 accompanied by a vivacious clacking of the mandibles, and that 

 the subsequent outburst of discordant trills ended, not with a volley 

 of corks, but with extinction of the voice, the raven being left with 

 its beak still open, in an attitude of bewildered inquiry. 1 



The song described by Dr. Coues was heard in winter, but the 

 same, or something similar, is, according to Brehm, a feature of the 

 raven's courtship, for though pairing for life like other Corvidae, it 

 does not on that account disdain to give expression, each returning 

 spring, to the renewal of its passion. The exact form the courtship 

 takes has received little notice, much more having been devoted 

 to the extermination of the species and the rifling of its nest No 

 doubt the bird makes good play, like the Crows in general, with the 

 tail and wings, fanning the one and trailing the other, actions that 

 it certainly performs to express a general sense of satisfaction. A 

 pair have also been seen on more than one occasion with their 

 beaks fondly interlocked, pouring stifled grunts and gurglings down 

 each other's throat soft nothings charged with meaning. 



These amenities are not confined to the period of courtship. They 

 occur also when the young are in the nest, at which period the parents 

 have been seen standing face to face, quite motionless, with the 

 tips of their beaks touching. This corvine kiss lasted three to four 

 minutes. On another occasion the male stood facing his mate and 

 jumped up into the air two or three times to the height of three 

 or four feet a novel method of expressing his affection. 2 



The great feature of the raven's courtship are the aerial gambols 



1 Bulletin de la SodeU ornithologique Suisse, tome 1, 2" partie, 1866 (G. Lunel). Since writing 

 the above lines, my attention has been drawn to another description of the raven's song in 

 R. B. Lodge's Bird Hunting in Wild Europe, p. 230. 



2 British Birds, Jan. 1, 1910 (F. Heatherley). 



