174 SPRING. 



the raven upon which was often but too certain a pre- 

 sage of suffering to the inhabitants of the British 

 shores, and of the descent and discomfiture of which, 

 there are still traces upon some of those ancient 

 chiselled stones, which have stood so long that they 

 have become merely their own monuments for any 

 accurate or useful purpose. On some of these stones 

 there are armed men, with the raven flying over them, 

 killing an unarmed people ; then bowmen and spear- 

 men meet them in hostile array ; and lastly, they and 

 the raven are stretched upon the ground. 



These and many others that might be mentioned, 

 give the raven a traditional fame or a traditional in- 

 famy, that does not belong even to the golden eagle ; 

 and then as the bird is much more abundant, and on 

 that account much more destructive, it is more seen 

 and mentioned. When in favourable circumstances 

 for an abundant supply of food, which it -gorges in great 

 quantity at all times and more especially when young, 

 the raven is a large and powerful bird. Females, which 

 as in the birds of prey properly so called are larger 

 than the male, have been found measuring twenty-six 

 inches in length, and nearly fifty inches in the stretch 

 of the wings, and weighing about two pounds and a 

 quarter; the male is about three inches shorter, and 

 four narrower, and five or six ounces lighter. The 

 wings are particularly broad and strong ; and one is 

 often surprised at finding a bird which hops about, as if 

 it were not only unable to fly, but crippled in the legs, 

 vault up into the air, and, in brief space, vanish from a 

 pretty extensive horizon with the fleetness of an arrow. 

 The general colour of the raven is black, and the 



