LOCAL ATTACHMENT 159 



ago, a " raven- tree," "the pest or the pride of the 

 village," it might be called, according to the point of 

 view, could be pointed out in many spots, in almost 

 every county in England. The oldest inhabitant, a 

 man perhaps of eighty or ninety years of age, could 

 not "mind" the time, nor his father before him, no, 

 nor his father again before him, he would say with 

 honest pride, when " the raven " was not there. The 

 bird must therefore be not only much older than 

 himself; but as old, probably, as his grandfather, 

 his father, and himself put together ! * 



A few words about the raven as a pet. No bird, 

 I think, is his equal in this capacity, whether we 

 look at his intense sociability, his queer secretiveness, 

 his powers of mimicry, his inexhaustible store of 

 fun and mischief. You have never got to the 

 bottom of him. He is always learning something 

 fresh. No bird has a more elaborate development 

 of the vocal organs, and no bird, not even a parrot, 

 makes more use of them. He will catch up any 

 sound which takes his fancy, from his own name 

 Ralph, or Grip, or Jacob, to a short sentence ; and 

 the latter he will practise, with only a few " flashes 

 of silence," by the hour together. His voice is so 

 human that it has often been mistaken for a man's. 

 * See Appendix on the age of the raven (p. 419). 



