RAVENS. 235 



to destroy as many as they can, yet give them credit 

 for the gift of prophecy, and have a high opinion of 

 them as soothsayers. And the priests of the North 

 American Indians wear, as a distinguishing mark of 

 their sacred profession, two or three Raven-skins, 

 fixed to the girdle behind their back, in such a man- 

 ner that the tails stick out horizontally from the 

 body. They have also a split Raven-skin on the 

 head, so fastened as to let the beak project from the 

 forehead. 



That birds, if entirely unmolested, will become 

 tame and fearless, has been frequently noticed. 

 During Captain Back's Arctic expedition, two 

 Ravens appeared as his earliest visiters, announcing 

 the approach of Spring; he would not suffer them 

 to be disturbed, and in a few days they consequently 

 became so familiar, as scarcely to move ten paces 

 when any one passed them : they were the only 

 living things, he adds, that held communion with 

 the party, and it was a pleasure to see them gambol 

 in their glossy plumage on the white snow. 



CROWS AND ROOKS. 



PEOPLE who live in towns, or pay little attention to 

 these matters, would no doubt consider the above- 

 mentioned birds as one and the same, alike as they 

 are in size and colour, and seen, as they usually are, 

 spread over our fields, or uttering their well-known 

 cawings on the top of some hedge. They are, how- 

 ever, as distinct in their characters and habits as a 

 hare and a rabbit. The real Crow, commonly called 

 the Carrion Crow (Corvus corone,) is the next link in 



