192 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



strip the wind. Almost always on tlie wing, we 

 scarcely see them in any other position. Living 

 on the honeyed sweets of the most beautiful 

 flowers, and the minute insects concealed in 

 their corollas, they come to us as ethereal beings, 

 and it is not surprising that they should have 

 excited the wonder and admiration of man- 

 kind." 



This genus consists of upwards of a hundi-ed 

 species, all of which, it is said, are peculiar to 

 the Continent of America and the adjoining 

 Islands. 



Contrasted with these, are those birds which, 

 delighting in rapacity and cruelty, are the terror 

 of the winged tribes. The evil character of these, 

 superstition has not fiiiled to magnify and invest 

 with a thousand imaginary horrors. Thus that 

 so-called ominous bird, the raven, is maligned 

 and persecuted. His usefulness entirely forgot- 

 ten, a war of extirmination is mercilessly waged 

 against him, and his retreats attacked, even 

 though at the cost of the greatest peril to the 

 invaders, his nest being invariably placed in the 

 most inaccessible cavities of the rock. 



In America, the raven which frequents the 

 middle, western, and northern portions of the 

 States, usually resorts to mountains, banks of 

 rivers, rocky shores, and the cliflfe of deserted 

 islands. Species of the crow are also met 



