THE RAVLN. 181 



discovery by the sullen note of the raven, as it hopped 

 sidelong toward the skeletons to tug at the last tendon. 

 Among these remains of the winter, the ravens find 

 that abundant supply of exciting food which, along 

 with the augmenting warmth and fresh air of the 

 season, stimulates and strengthens them for the great la- 

 bour that they must undergo, in the preparation of their 

 nests, and the rearing of their broods. If they did no 

 more they would be entitled to our thanks, as in that 

 part of their economy they injure nothing, and consume 

 substances which, in the situations from which they 

 remove them, are both useless and offensive. They 

 perform a sort of double labour of usefulness in 

 the removal of those substances ; for if these were 

 left to putrify upon the ground, they would soon be 

 filled by the eggs, and after that by the young of in- 

 sects, the numbers of which would thereby be so much 

 increased, that the air of summer would be intolerable; 

 and as the generations of those insects increase rapidly 

 in numbers as the season advances, the whole organic 

 matter on the face of the earth would be changed to 

 them, and even they would become extinct. We can 

 form no idea of the extreme usefulness of those birds 

 that resemble the raven in their habits, from what we 

 see in the comparatively cold climate of this country, 

 in which a few such birds as the raven and the carrion 

 crow, are adequate to the purpose ; but in those sultry 

 climes where the progress of putridity is greater, and 

 where the vulture and other birds, far exceeding our 

 raven in power and voracity, are prepared by nature 

 for the purpose, the want of these would soon be se- 

 verely felt. 



