192 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
strip the wind. Almost always on the wing, we 
scarcely see them in any other position. Living 
on the honeyed sweets of the most beautiful 
flowers, and the minute insects concealed in 
their corollas, they come to us as ethereal beings, 
and it is not surprising that they should have 
excited the wonder and admiration of man- 
kind.” 
This genus consists of upwards of a hundred 
species, all of which, it is said, are peculiar to 
the Continent of America and the adjoining 
Islands. 
Contrasted with these, are those birds which, 
delighting in rapacity and cruelty, are the terror 
of the winged tribes. The evil character of these, 
superstition has not failed to magnify and invest 
with a thousand imaginary horrors. Thus that 
so-called ominous bird, the raven, is maligned 
and persecuted. His usefulness entirely forgot- 
ten, a war of extirmination is mercilessly waged 
against him, and his retreats attacked, even 
though at the cost of the greatest peril to the 
invaders, his nest being invariably placed in the 
most inaccessible cavities of the rock. 
_ In America, the raven which frequents the 
middle, western, and northern: portions of the 
States, usually resorts to mountains, banks of 
rivers, rocky shores, and the cliffs of deserted 
islands. Species of the crow are also met 
