THE RAVEN AS A PET 161 



at Hungerford, struck up a close friendship with a 

 Newfoundland dog. When the dog broke his leg 

 the raven waited on him constantly, catered for him, 

 forgetting, for the time, his own greediness, and 

 rarely, if ever, left his side. One night, when his 

 friend was, by accident, shut within the stable alone, 

 Ralph succeeded in pecking a hole through the 

 door, all but large enough to admit his body. 

 Another raven, kept in a yard, in which a big basket 

 sparrow-trap was sometimes set, watched narrowly 

 the process from his favourite corner, and managed, 

 when the trap fell, to lift it up, hoping to get at the 

 sparrows within. They, of course, escaped before 

 he could drop the trap. But, taught by experience, 

 he opened communications with another tame raven 

 in an adjoining yard, and the next time the trap fell, 

 while one of them lifted it up, the other pounced 

 upon the quarry. Wild ravens have, in like manner, 

 been observed, upon occasion, to hunt their prey in 

 couples. In ancient times, an Asiatic Greek, named 

 Craterus, used to take his tame ravens out hunting 

 with him, perched, like the falcons of more modern 

 times, on the hunting horns, or the shoulders of his 

 attendants ; and they were trained to find his prey for 

 him in the coverts, as well as to harry it when found. 

 A correspondent, Mr J. Sherwell, tells me that 



