86 THE RAVEN 



pets, from the bird dealers in Leadenhall Market, is 

 so high some ten or fifteen shillings each that a 

 brood is rarely reared in safety. But it is probable 

 that the high price paid for the young birds may 

 help to secure the safety of the old ; for the expert 

 cragsman, carrying his rope and his life in his hand, 

 who is to be found at the neighbouring villages of 

 Chaldon or West Lulworth, is too much alive to his 

 own interest to kill the goose that lays for him the 

 golden eggs. 



What is the raven like ? He is highly symme- 

 trical in form. In bearing, he is grave, dignified, and 

 sedate. No one would suspect the fun, the perennial 

 fund of humour, conscious or unconscious chiefly, I 

 am convinced, the former which lies behind. His 

 walk is, like himself, stately and deliberate, especially 

 when he is searching the sea-shore and prying into 

 every nook and corner for any food which may have 

 been thrown up upon it, never so well described as 

 in one line of Virgil, remarkable alike for its rhythm 

 and its alliteration : 



" Et sola in sicca secum spatiatur arena." 

 u And stalks in stately solitude along the dry sea-sand." 



His eyes are exceptionally bright ; but they are of 

 small size, as also are his nostrils, for what they 



