384 



THE CARRION CROW. 



ings by the strokes of his long and powerful beak. Even the larger 

 cattle are not free from the assaults of this voracious bird, which per- 

 forms in every case the office of a vulture. 



The cunning of the Raven is proverbial, and anecdotes of its extra- 

 ordinary intellectual powers abound in various works. 



The Raven is an excellent linguist, acquiring the art of conversation 

 with wonderful rapidity, and retaining with a singularly powerful 

 memory many sounds which it has once learned. Whole sentences 

 are acquired by this strange bird, and repeated with great accuracy 

 of intonation, the voice being a good imitation of human speech, but 

 always sounding as if spoken from behind a thick woollen wrapper. 

 The Raven is celebrated for its longevity, many instances being 

 known where it has attained the age of seventy or eighty years with- 

 out losing one jot of its activity or the fading of one spark from its 

 eyes. What may be the duration of a Raven's life in its wild state is 

 quite unknown. 



The color of the Raven is a uniform blue-black, with green reflections 

 in certain lights. The female is always larger than her mate. 



The common Carrion Crow, so plentiful in this country, much re- 

 sembles in habits and appearance the bird which has just been described. 



and may almost be reck- 

 oned as a miniature raven. 

 In many of its customs the 

 Crow is very raven-like, 

 especially in its love for 

 carrion and its propensity 

 for attacking the eyes of 

 any dead or dying ani- 

 mal. Like the Raven, it 

 has been known to attack 

 game of various kinds, 

 although its inferior size 

 forces it to call to its as- 

 sistance the aid of one or more of its fellows before it can successfully 

 cope with the larger creatures. Rabbits and hares are frequently the 

 prey of this bird, which pounces on them as they steal abroad to 

 feed, and is able to kill and carry them off without difficulty while 

 they are young. The Crow also eats reptiles of various sorts, frogs 

 and lizards being common dainties, and is a confirmed plunderer of 

 other birds' nests, even carrying away the eggs of game and poultry 

 by the simple device of driving the beak through them and flying 

 away with them when thus impaled. Even the large egg of the 

 duck has thus been stolen by the Crow. Sometimes it goes to feed 

 on the sea-shore, and there finds plenty of food among the crabs, 



The Crow (Corviis Corone). 



