PASSIONS OF THE RAVEN 7 



by Darwin, who, after a long visit to England, re- 

 verted, after their return to their native land, to 

 their old customs, the eating of putrid whale 

 blubber, and the suffocating of their old women ? 

 Or again, was it a crowning proof of love, such as 

 is given by some animals to their young, when they 

 think they can save them in no other way, or by 

 such savages as those described by Herodotus, who 

 thought it was a sign of the basest ingratitude not to 

 kill and eat their aged parents ? We know not ; 

 but any bird which has a nature so inscrutable, so 

 passion-ravaged, capable of such fierce extremes 

 and such violent revulsions of feeling, possesses a 

 personality of its own, and has that within it, from 

 which a whole Greek tragedy, nay, a second Medea, 

 might be well evolved. 



It should be added, to make the story 

 complete, that the bird was still living in 1874. 

 She had long since built a nest upon the 

 ground, which she industriously repaired from 

 year to year, lining it with the hair she managed 

 to extract from the body of a terrier friend, when 

 he was fast asleep, and always showing a special 

 preference for the soft down which grew inside his 

 ears. The raven, indeed, had a rare time of it, 

 whenever the terrier was bent on sleep. As he 



