172 



SPRING. 



space above it, so that birds sometimes take advantage 

 of the hollow of its nest as a canopy from the weather, 

 and also for protection from the rook, which keeps 

 guard for its unknown neighbour. 



The whole of the crow tribe are interesting in the 

 spring ; and though the interest be of a different cha- 

 racter, there is none more so tha.n 



THE RAVEN. 



Every body has heard of the raven : that dark and 

 gloomy spoiler, which ranges from " Indus to the frozen 

 pole," has his food as universal as his habitation, and 

 kills by almost the prolonged torture of eating to death 

 whatever he can master. And yet for all the darkness 

 of his colour and his character, and the sound of his 

 voice as if it came from the thick sepulchre of an Egyp- 

 tian pyramid, there is a sort of regal gloom, a melan- 

 choly majesty about the raven. He is a sort of bird 



