Lit 
Pe C0 ORY Ey Ne ee, 
feet, and forty-three with webbed feet, natives or frequenters of the ifland. I 
have omitted, in the Zoologic part, the Lefler Guillemot, Br. Zool. ii. N° 235, 
which isa native of Iceland, and called there Ringuia. It ought to have had a 
place in an appendage to the Guillemots, p. 517. 
The Raven holds the firft rank among the land-birds in the Scandinavian. 
mythology. We fee the ufe made of them by the chieftain Floke. ‘The Bards, 
in their fongs, give them the claffical attribute of ‘the power of prefage. Thus 
they make Thromundr and Thorbiorn, before a feudal battle, explain the foreboding 
yoice of this bird, and its intereft in the field of battle *. 
Tur. Hark! the Raven’s croak I hear, Tuor. The Raven croaks : the warriors flain, 
Lo! the bird of Fate is near. With blood her dufky wings diftain ; 
In the dawn, with dufky wings, Tir'd her morning prey fhe feeks, 
Hoarfe the fong of death the fings. And with blood and carnage reeks. 
Thus in days of yore the fang, Thus, perch’d upon an aged oak, 
When the din of battle rang ; The boding bird was heard to croak ; 
When the hour of death drew nigh, When all the plain with blood was fpread, 
And mighty chiefs were doom’d to die. Thirfting for the mighty dead. 
R. W. 
The Rayen had ftill higher honors in the northern nations. It was facred to 
Odin, the hero and god of thenorth. On the facred flag of the Danes was em- 
broidered this bird. Odin was faid to have been always attended by two, which: 
fate on his fhoulders ; whence he was called the God of Ravens: one was ftyled 
Huginn, or Thought ; the other Muninn, or Memory. They whifpered in his ear all: 
they faw or heard. In the earlieft dawn, he fent them to fly round the world,. 
and they returned before dinner, fraught with intelligence. Odin thus fang their. 
importance ; 
Huginn and Muninn, my delight ! 
Speed thro’ the world their daily flight : 
From their fond lord they both are flown, 
Perhaps eternally are gone. 
Tho’ Huginn’s lofs I fhould deplore 
Yet Muninn’s would afi me more +. 
R. W. 
I have already fpoken of the excellent Falcons of this ifland: let me add, 
that Falcons were among the animals facrificed to Odin f, being birds of the firft 
courage, and which delighted in blood. 
* Ifland’s Landnamabok, 172. + Bartholinus de Caufis contempta Mortis, &c. 429. t Mal- 
lot's Northern Antiq. ite 142. 
The 
