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. 



