220 Corvidcv. 



production of the same, the person so producing it will receive 

 2s. 6d. from the guardian of the said parish.' Let me as guardian 

 of the parish of Yatesbury, in passing, assure all whom it may 

 concern, that to me at least the Corvicide will apply in vain for 

 blood-money on account of any such atrocious murder. Ravens, 

 however, were happily too wide-awake to be easily caught in the 

 days of inefficient weapons ; but now the breechloader, the trap, 

 and poison have all done their work so effectually, that these 

 grand birds are become scarce in England, though some few 

 chosen spots there are where they are guarded from molestation. 

 And, indeed, a Raven tree is no mean ornament to a park, and 

 speaks of a wide domain and large timber, and an ancient family, 

 for the Raven is an aristocratic bird, and cannot brook a confined 

 property, or trees of young growth : would that its predilections 

 were more humoured, and a secure retreat allowed it by the 

 larger proprietors in the land ! The time has, I trust, gone by in 

 England when the poor Raven was regarded as a bird of ill-omen, 

 and its croak dreaded as a sure sign portending some coming 

 evil; and yet not long ago such was the absurd superstition 

 regarding this much-maligned species, as we may see from 

 various passages of Shakespeare as well as other authors of that 

 and even a later date its remarkable power of smell and almost 

 inconceivable sensitiveness to the odour of sickness and death * 

 having procured it the reputation of a prognosticator of mis- 

 fortune, so that its harsh croak, listened to with fear when illness 

 of any kind was in the house, was regarded as a most inauspicious 

 sound, as we read in ' Othello ' : 



1 Oh, it comes o'er my memory 



As doth the raven o'er the infected house, 



Boding to all. 1 



And this supposed faculty of ' smelling death ' made its presence, 

 and even its voice, looked upon as accursed : 



' The hateful messenger of heavy things, 

 Of death and dolour telling.'f 



For a remarkable proof of this sensitiveness see an account given by the 

 Rev. A. P. Morres, of what occurred in modern days at Mere, in the Wilt- 

 shire Magazine for 1879, vol. xviii., p. 290. 



t Dyer's 'English Folk-Lore,' p. 78. 



