THE NORTHERN RAVEN. 



Quick-sighted, cunning and audacious, this bird of sinister appearance 

 has been invested by peoples of all ages with a mysterious and semi-sacred 

 character. His ominous croakings were thought to have prophetic import, 

 while his preternatural shrewdness has made him with many a symbol of 

 divine knowledge. A less reverent age has doomed this ancient marauder to 

 an over-hasty destruction. While it is true that he has robbed birds' nests, 

 fallen upon wounded sheep, and taken toll of the tender lambs since the world 

 began, his services as scavenger, insect-eater, and mole-destroyer have been 

 infinitely greater, and for sentimental reasons, if for no other, the world could 

 ill afiford to part with the bird whose sable thread has followed all the windings 

 of human history. 



The Raven has more dignity, and as a species, less flexibility than the 

 Crow. As a result, altho it is exceedingly wary, the relentless warfare of 

 the pioneers has thrust it almost entirely out of bounds, so far as the Eastern 

 United States is concerned. While Wilson reported it as common in the 

 northern part of this state at the beginning of the last century, only stragglers 

 from the far north are noted nowadays, — unless, indeed, it should prove to 

 be found breeding in Fulton County, as has been recently asserted. In this 

 case the bird should receive rigid protection. 



With the Raven's habits we cannot largely concern ourselves here. 

 According to Captain Bendire (who observed a closely allied form in the 

 West) "their ordinary call note is a loud Craack, craack, varied sometimes 

 by a deep grunting koerr, koerr, and again by a clucking, a sort of self-satisfied 

 sound, difficult to reproduce on paper, in fact they utter a variety of notes when 

 at ease and undisturbed, among others a metallic sounding klunk, which seems 

 to cost them considerable effort." The Ravens do not associate very intimately 

 with others of their kind, but a pair of them are mated for life. Each spring 

 the birds indulge in amorous antics which are decidedly infra dig., turning 

 somersaults in the air, trying to fly on their backs, etc. Unlike the Crows, 

 these birds repair the same nest year after year, and their local attachments 

 are very strong. In these circumstances, no doubt, is to l^e found one element 

 of the racial weakness in the presence of oncoming civilization. On the other 

 hand. Ravens attain a great age, specimens having been kept in captivity 

 upwards of a hundred years. 



