THE RAVEN. 113 



man who has just departed, and a monument, erected by public 

 subscription, concludes the farce. The raven's ancestor was un- 

 questionably with Noah in the ark, and although he has incurred 

 some odium in connection with the assuaging of the waters, we 

 confess we cannot well tell why, for all that the ancient, and 

 beautiful, and simple narrative says of him is this : " And he sent 

 forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were 

 dried up from oflf the earth." On the point of ancestry, in short, 

 there is no bird that has a better right to hold up his head 

 than the raven. And just consider : wasn't Dickens' stuffed raven 

 " Grip " sold the other day for a hundred and twenty guineas ! 

 although if his portrait in the Oraphic is to be depended on, he 

 never was a handsome specimen of the family, or if he was, then 

 the man who stuffed and " set him up " should have received a 

 flogging for his pains. Should the reader wish to know more 

 about our friend Corvus eorax, we can confidently recommend him 

 to make the acquaintance, the intimate acquaintance if he can, of 

 " The Eaven " to be met with in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, the 

 most weird and wonderful raven that has ever yet appeared in song 

 or story. 



