AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



279 



The ferocious wife of Macbeth, on being advised of the 

 approach of Duncan, whose death she had conspired, thus 

 exclaims: 



" The Raven liimself is hoarse, 

 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 

 Under my battlements ! "*j 



The Moor of Venice says: 



" It comes o'er my memory. 

 As doth the Raven o'er the infected house. 

 Boding to all."f 



The last quotation alludes to the supposed habits of this 

 bird flying over those houses which contain the sick, whose 

 dissolution is at hand, and thereby announced. Thus Mar- 

 lowe, in the Jew of Malta, as cited by Malone: 



" The sad presaging Raven tolls 



The sick man's passport in her hoUow beak. 



And in the shadow of silent night 



Doth shake contagion from her sable wing." 



But it is the province of philosophy to dispel those illu- 

 sions which bewilder the mind, by pointing out the simple 

 truths which Nature has been at no pains to conceal, but 

 which the folly of mankind has shrouded in all the obscu- 

 rity of mystery. 



The Raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, 

 but is more common in the interior. On the lakes, and 

 particularly in the neighbourhood of the Falls of the river 

 Niagara, they are numerous; and it is a remarkable fact, 

 that where they so abound, the common Crow, C corone, 

 seldom makes its appearance; being intimidated, it is con- 

 jectured, by the superior size and strength of the former, or 

 by the antipathy which the two species manifest towards 

 other. This I had an opportunity of observing myself, in 

 a journey during the months of August and September, 

 along the lakes Erie and Ontario. The Ravens were seen 

 every day, prowling about in search of the dead fish, which 

 the waves are continually casting ashore, and which afford 

 them an abundance of a favourite food; but I did not see or 

 hear a single Crow within several miles of the lakes; and 

 but a very few through the whole of the Gennesee country. 



The food of this species is dead animal matter of all kinds, 

 not excepting the most putrid carrion, which it devours in 

 common with the Vultures; worms, grubs, reptiles and 

 shell-fish, the last of which, in the manner of the Crow, it 

 (^rops from a considerable height in the air, on the rocks, in 

 order to break the shells; it is fond of birds eggs, and is 



* Act i. scene 5. 



t Othello, act iv. scene 1. 



often observed sneaking around the farm-house, in search 

 of the eggs of the domestic poultry, which it sucks with 

 eagerness; it is likewise charged with destroying young 

 ducks and chickens, and lambs which have been yeaned in 

 a sickly state. The Raven, it is said, follows the hunters of 

 deer for the purpose of falling heir to the ofial;* and the 

 huntsmen are obliged to cover their game, when it is left in 

 the woods, with their hunting frocks, to secure it from this 

 thievish connoisseur, who, if he have an opportunity, will 

 attack the region of the kidneys and mangle the saddle 

 without ceremony. 



BufFon says, that " the Raven plucks out the eyes of 

 Buffaloes, and then /a-m^ on the back, tears off the flesh 

 deliberately; and what renders the ferocity more detestable, 

 it is not incited by the cravings of hunger, but by the appe- 

 tite for carnage; for it can subsist on fruits, seeds of all kinds, 

 and indeed may be considered an omnivorous animal." 

 This is mere fable, and of a piece with many other absurdi- 

 ties of the same agreeable, but fanciful author. 



This species is found almost all over the habitable globe. 

 We trace it in the north from Norway to Greenland, and 

 hear of it in Kamtschatka. It is common every where in 

 Russia and Siberia, except within the Arctic circle; and all 

 through Europe, Kolben enumerates the Raven among the 

 birds of the Cape of Good Hope; De Grandpre represents 

 it as numerous in Bengal, where they are said to be protected 

 for their usefulness; and the unfortunate La Perouse saw 

 them at Bate de Castries, on the east coast of Tartary; 

 likewise at Port des Francois; 58° 37' north latitude, and 

 139° 50' west longitude; and at Monterey Bay, north Cali- 

 fornia. The English circumnavigators met with them at 

 Nootka Sound; and at the Sandwich Islands, two being 

 seen in the village of Kakooa; also at Owhyhee, and sup- 

 posed to be adored there, as they were called Eatoos. Our 

 intrepid American travellers, under the command of Lewis 

 and Clark, shortly after they embarked on the river Colum- 

 bia, saw abundance of Ravens, which were attracted thither 

 by the immense quantity of dead salmon which lined the 

 shores. They are found at all seasons in Hudson's Bay; 

 are frequent in Mexico; and it is more than probable that 

 they inhabit the whole continent of America. 



The Raven measures, from the tip of the bill to the end 

 of the tail, twenty-six inches, and is four feet in extent; the 

 bill is large and strong, of a shining black, notched near the 

 tip, and three inches long, the sestaceous feathers which 

 cover the nostrils extend half its length; the eyes are black; 

 the general colour is a deep glossy black, with steel-blue re- 

 flections; the lower parts are loss glossy; the tail is rounded, 



* Tliis is the case in those parts of the United States where the deer are 

 hunted without dogs: where these are employed they are generally rewarded 

 with the oflfal. 



