IQQ KATUEAL HISTORY COLLEOTIONS I^T ALASKA. 



Throughout the Territory the Eaven is a rather commoa but scattered species, becoming 

 abundant only along the southeast coast and the entire length of the Aleutian chain, where is 

 found its center of abundance. Korth of the Aleutian chain, wherever a jutting ragged cape or 

 bold cliff faces the sea and defies the grinding ice and surging waves, one or more pairs of these 

 birds may be found to have taken up their residence, safely out of reach of predatory raids from 

 above or below. In passing these cliffs, during stormy winter days, when the wind whistles 

 around the arches and jagged points of the rocks, I have frequently heard the strange notes of 

 the ravens, and caught glimpses of their dark forms as they showed themselves for an instant 

 through a rift in the storm, gliding back and forth, uttering their wild cries, and apparently 

 enjoying the fierce gales and in full accord with the wild surroundings. A particular instance is 

 especially impressed upon my mind. It was during a journey in midwinter when we arrived at a 

 rocky promontory just as a terrible gale of wind and snow set in. Our road for several miles 

 lay around the base of a series of cliffs. On the left arose sheer black walls of rock around whose 

 angles and spurs the wind swirled and beat the sharp fragments of snow in blinding masses. 

 Along the path which we were forced to travel, lay a shelving mass of fallen rock, a few yards 

 wide, and covered with ice formed by the spray dashed up from the sea, which surged, inky-black, 

 against the foot of the cliff some 10 feet below. We crept around the narrow shelf, every muscle 

 strained to keep the sledges from being dashed over the edge of the rock into the sea; suddenly, 

 ■directly overhead, came with startling distinctness the hoarse cry of a raven. A hasty glance 

 ■upward showed one of these birds floating directly over us upon motionless wings, and until we 

 were safe on the farther side of the cape this bird kept above us, uttering repeatedly its harsh 

 notes, which superstitious fancy might easily, under the circumstances, have construed as of evil 

 omen. It is to such scenes as these, doubtless, with the occasional accidents attending them, that 

 is due the occult standing enjoyed by this bird among the ignorant and superstitious. 



At Unalaska, one of the eastern Aleutian Islands, the raven is extremely numerous and famil- 

 iar. It keeps about the village and is scarcely more shy than the domestic fowls. On wild, 

 stormy days it appears to delight in soaring high overhead in large numbers. During the time 

 when fierce gales are rushing over the mountain-tops and down the gorges into the confined 

 valleys, thirty or forty of these birds may be seen at a time circling overhead on outspread wings, 

 in involved circles, uttering a medley of odd "cork-drawing" and other strange notes. The birds 

 appear to be animated by a frolicsome disposition, and pursue one another playfully as if exult- 

 ing in the fierce dashes of scud and rain that are driven before the wind. At other times they 

 feed along the shore and make the roof of the Eussian church, in the center of the village, a 

 general meeting place to rest and doze. They have a common habit of rising high overhead with 

 a sea-urchin (Echinus) in their beaks, and after reaching an elevation of several hundred feet of 

 allowing the shell-fish to fall. As a consequence, it is common to find the shells of these radiates 

 scattered all over the hill-sides in the vicinity of the sea; apparently the ravens do not do this with 

 the intention of gaining readier access to the contents of the shell, and I do not recall a single in- 

 stance where a raven followed the shell to the ground, although on several instances I have seen the 

 birds dive hastily after the falling shell and capture it in their beaks before it reached the ground, 

 apparently in sport. 



In spite of their familiarity at Unalaska they are wise enough to place their nests on almost 

 inaccessible cliffs some distance from the village and beyond the reach of mischevious boys. At 

 Kulato, on the Lower Yukon, they lay their eggs about April 20, and there, as elsewhere, the 

 birds exhibit much anxiety if their nests are approached. 



Liitke tells us that — 

 The ravens are the police of Sitka. No poultry can be raised, since the ravens devour the fledglings as fast a« 

 they appear, mating only one mouthful of them. The porkers are too large to be overcome iu the same manner, and 

 the ravens are obliged to satisfy their greediness by keeping the pigs' tails close cropped. This is the reason why 

 Sitka pigs have no tails. 



In spite of this ancient persecution, we are assured by Mr. Dall that the pigs of the present 

 day have caudal appendages of the usual length. 



