538 BRITISH BIRDS. 



During the whole time that incubation is in progress the Raven is 

 remarkably wary, ever on the alert to defend its home from intruders. 

 Now a Peregrine or a stray Eagle will come too near the cliff that contains 

 their nest, and both the old birds will sally out and buffet the unwelcome 

 stranger ; or, mayhap, a Carrion-Crow or Hoodie, in search of plunder, 

 unconsciously approach, and are beaten off by the ever-watchful birds. 

 Both birds sit upon the eggs, although the greater part of the duties of 

 incubation is performed by the female. When the young are hatched, the 

 birds' thieving propensities become more strongly marked, as the wants of 

 a clamorous brood engage their attention from dawn till dusk. Even when 

 the young are able to leave the nest they are tended by their parents for 

 some considerable time, until, when able to gain their own living, they 

 are ruthlessly driven from their birthplace for ever. 



The usual note of the Raven is a hoarse croak, something like the word 

 crude, cruck ; and early in the year, during the pairing-period, it sometimes 

 utters a few more musical cries. The Raven is very commonly kept in 

 confinement ; for it is a bird very easily tamed, and soon becomes most 

 familiar. Its habits and oddities in confinement would furnish anecdote 

 enough to fill a volume; and when so tamed the bird often displays 

 great powers of voice, imitating the notes of other birds, the cries 

 of cats or dogs, whistling a tune, or correctly copying any sound it 

 may hear. 



The Raven has the entire plumage black, glossed with steel-blue and 

 purple, most richly on the upper parts and the feathers of the throat, 

 which are considerably elongated like the hackles of a Cock. The tail is 

 slightly rounded. Bill, legs, feet, and claws black ; irides brown. The 

 female is slightly smaller than the male ; and its plumage, as well as that of 

 the young, is not so metallic. 



In the Faroes and Iceland, and sometimes in various parts of Scotland, 

 pied Ravens are sometimes observed, to which Vieillot applied the name 

 of Corvus leucophaeus ; but these birds possess no claim to specific distinc- 

 tion, and are but accidental varieties of the Common Raven. Wolley 

 states, in a paper on the birds of the Faroe Islands, published in Jardine's 

 ' Contributions to Ornithology/ that two pied specimens of the Raven were 

 shown to him that had been taken from a nest containing young of the 

 normal colour. 



