278 

 pair of the young birds, which were about readv to 



fly. ^ 



When the old Ravens saw their home invaded th<'.v 

 flew off and gave vent to their sorrow by harsh cries. 

 After the daring boy with his feathered captives 

 reached the river bank, the old birds came 

 back to the nesting site in the lichen covered rocks, 

 where doubtless for many generations their ancestors 

 had bred, and both the birds with evidences of sorrow, 

 anger and disgust such as only childless Ravens can 

 show, tore up the nest, dropping sticks, etc., over the 

 hanging cliff, and after making a few circles over the 

 place and saying a whole lot of bad things in Raven 

 dialect, they retired and no Ravens have since been 

 seen about the ill-fated place. 



"QUOTH THE RAVEX, NEVERMORE." 



This pair of ebony-rolorod croakers were evidently 

 not of the common fvorv-dny plebeian type of Ravens 

 which one is accustomed to see in the mountain fast- 

 nesses. They were, no doubt, direct descendants from 

 the wise ])luitouian bird which years ago perched on 

 the bust of Pallas over the docanvay of the atelier of 

 Edgar Allen Poe, and prompted that talented and 

 gifted wiiter of weird poetry ;)nd tales to i)eii tlic 

 famous stanzas on "The Raven." That these birds 

 were lineal descendants of this Raven there can be little 

 room for doubt, as a venerable woodsman who was 

 thoroughly familiar with Raven dialect attested with 

 great assurance to the fact that he had distinctly heard 

 these sorrowing and angry birds as they tossed the 

 dead sticks, faded mosses, etc., over the dizzy height 

 repeat the word that Poe, fifty years ago, had placed 

 in the mouth of their famous ancestor — "Nevermore." 



