NORTHERN OCEAN 373 



Ravens-^ of a most beautiful glossy black, richly tinged Ravens, 

 with purple and voilet colour, are the constant inhabitants of 

 Hudson's Bay ; but are so far inferior in size to the English 

 Raven, that they are usually called Crows. They build their 

 nests in lofty pine-trees, and generally lay four speckled eggs ; 

 they bring forth their young so early as the latter end of May, 

 or the beginning of June. In Summer many of them frequent 

 the barren grounds, several hundred miles from any woods ; 

 probably invited there by the multitudes of deer and musk- 

 oxen that are killed by the Northern Indians during that season, 

 merely for their [404] skins, and who leave their flesh to rot, 

 or be devoured by beasts or birds of prey. At those times 

 they are very fat, and the flesh of the young ones is delicately 

 white, and good eating. But in Winter they are, through 

 necessity, obliged to feed on a black moss that grows on the 

 pine-trees, also on deer's dung, and excrements of other animals. 

 It is true, they kill some mice, which they find in the surface 

 of the snow, and catch many wounded partridges and hares ; 

 in some parts of the country they are a great nuisance to the 

 hunter, by eating the game that is either caught in snares or 

 traps. With all this assistance, they are in general so poor 

 during the severe cold in Winter, as to excite wonder how they 

 possibly can exist. 



Their faculty of scent must be very acute ; for in the 

 coldest days in Winter, when every kind of effluvia is almost 

 instantaneously destroyed by the frost, I have frequently 

 known buffaloes and other beasts killed where not one of 

 those birds were seen ; but in a few hours scores of them 

 would gather about the spot to pick up the dung, blood, and 

 other offal. An unarmed man may approach them very near 

 when feeding, but they are shy of those that have a gun ; 

 a great proof that they smell the gunpowder. They are, 

 however, frequently shot by guns set for foxes ; and some- 



[^ CorTfUs corax principalis Ridgway. The raven is rare on the coast of 

 Hudson Bay, but is rather common in the interior.] 



