ITS FOOD. 105 
manner that the tails stick out horizontally from 
the body. They have also a split raven skin on the 
head, so fastened as to let the beak project from the 
forehead.* 
The solitary habits of this bird during the nesting 
season are thus alluded to :— 
“ A barren detested vale, you see, it is ; 
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, 
O’ercome with moss and baleful misseltoe : 
Here never shines the sun ; here nothing breeds, 
Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven.” 
Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
And a curious belief is mentioned with regard to the 
rearing of its young :— 
“ Some say that ravens foster forlorn children, 
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests.” 
Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
It would appear, from some passages in the sacred 
Scriptures, that the desertion of their young had not 
escaped the observation of the inspired writers. It was 
certainly a current belief in olden times, that when the 
raven saw its young ones newly hatched, and covered 
with down, it conceived such an aversion that it forsook 
them, and did not return to the nest until a darker 
plumage had shown itself. And to this belief commenta- 
tors suppose the Psalmist alludes when he says :—“ He 
* Stanley's ‘‘ Familiar History of Birds,” p. 188. 
P 
