574 



8 



cooperate in hunting down their quarry. The shepherds accuse it, and not without reason, 

 of destroying young lambs — and the housewives of killing young poultry, and of breaking and 

 sucking eggs which may have been laid amongst the grass at some little distance from the 

 homestead. It is said to commit no little devastation amongst the barley, oats, and wheat 

 when other more suitable food is not at hand, and feeds on grubs, worms, and insects of various 

 kinds. In the villages in Northern Scandinavia I frequently saw Ravens gravely examining the 

 component parts of large rubbish-heaps that are thrown out near the cottages. 



The note of the Raven is a hoarse croak, resembling the word JcrrucTc; but, during the 

 breeding-season especially, it often utters a gulping and not disagreeable note, which may be 

 almost called a song. Professor Sundevall, indeed, says (Sv. Fogl. p. 118) that people who have 

 kept tame Ravens have informed him that when in an especially good humour during fine 

 weather they utter a series of low song-like notes, like the so-called song of the Crow and Magpie, 

 intermixed with a clear and pleasant note every now and again. Whilst these notes are uttered 

 the neck is stretched forward and moved with a wave-like motion. Probably this was the 

 " song " referred to by Von Kittlitz (cf. Finsch, Abh. naturw. Ver. Bremen, iii. p. 41) in his 

 notes on the Raven he met with in Sitka. Mr. B. R. Ross also states that the Raven has a very 

 liquid and musical call-note; and Professor Baird says that one of its notes is like that of the 

 Canada Goose. From the notes furnished to the latter gentleman by Dr. Elliott Coues, I tran- 

 scribe the following : — " The Raven is not, on the whole, so noisy a bird as the Crow, though he 

 croaks vigorously on occasion, and his caw may claim to be impressive if not agreeable. But the 

 queer sounds that the bird can utter, if he be so minded, are indescribable ; even his ordinary 

 cawing is susceptible of considerable modulation. A favourite amusement of his, when, his hunger 

 appeased for the time, he feels particularly comfortable, is to settle snugly on the top of a pine 

 tree, and talk to himself. The performance generally begins with a loud caw, self-asserting, 

 followed by a complacent chuckle ; and then comes a series of comical syllables so low as to be 

 scarcely audible from the ground below, as if he were musing aloud and tickled with his own 

 fancies. Then he will raise his voice again, and file away at some old saw for a while, finishing 

 with the inimitable ' cork-drawing ' for which his tribe is famous." 



An early breeder, the Raven commences nidification in February, and either repairs its old 

 nest or constructs a fresh one. Usually it breeds in some almost inaccessible fissure in the rocks ; 

 but it frequently builds also on trees. In any favourite locality where they find themselves 

 beyond molestation, a pair of Ravens will occupy the same nest year after year. I well recollect 

 one place on the shores of the Saima Lake in Southern Finland, where, in the cleft of a steep 

 rock overhanging the water, a pair of Ravens had for years built their nest. I tried every mode 

 I could think of to get at the nest, but without success. The nest is rather bulky, is constructed 

 of sticks, lined with roots and rabbit's down, or any suitable soft material. When, undisturbed, 

 they use the nest for several years in succession, they carefully refurnish it before commencing 

 nidification each spring. 



The eggs, from four to six and sometimes even as many as eight in number, resemble those 

 of the Carrion-Crow, but are larger in size. In my collection I have a considerable series from 

 various parts of Scandinavia and Northern Europe, which vary not a little, some being rich 

 pale blue with a greenish tinge, having faint blackish underlying shell-markings, and dark 



