CHAPTER II 



THE RAVEN 



PART I. Descriptive 



IN the last chapter, I expressed an opinion that 

 there is no bird which is of so great interest in 

 itself, and which it is so important and so imperative 

 for us to preserve, as the various species of the owl. 

 Owls apart, there is, I think, no class of birds 

 which, in view of their high physical and mental 

 development, of their powers of imitation, of their 

 curiously alternating sociability and shyness, of 

 their drolleries and their delicious aptitude, when 

 domesticated, for fun and mischief, of their influ- 

 ence, through all the earlier centuries and earlier 

 civilisations an influence which has not quite gone 

 by, even now and here over the thoughts, the 

 hopes and the fears of man, is equal in interest to 



