Chap. 15.] THE EATEN. 491 



and then lets them fall again and again upon the stones or tiles 

 beneath, until at last the shell is cracked, after which the bird 

 is able to open them. This is a bird with a very ill-omened 

 garrulity, though it has been highly praised by some.** It is 

 observed, that from the rising of the constellation Arcturus 

 until the arrival of the swallow, it is but rarely to be seen 

 about the sacred groves and temples of Minerva ; in some 

 places, indeed, not at all, Athens for instance." In addition to 

 these facts, it is the only one that continues to feed its young 

 for some time after they have begun to fly. The crow is most 

 inauspicious at the time of incubation, or, in other words, just 

 after the summer solstice. 



CHAP. 15. THE EATEN. 



All the other birds of the same kind drive their young ones 

 from their nest, and compel them to fly ; the raven, for in- 

 stance, which not only feeds on flesh, but even drives its young, 

 when able to fly, to a still greater distance. Hence it is that 

 in small hamlets there are never more than two™ pairs to 

 be found ; and in the neighbourhood of Crannon, in Thessaly, 

 never more than one, the parents always quitting the spot to 

 give place to their offspring. There have been some differences 

 observed between this and the bird last mentioned. Eavens 

 breed before the summer poktice, and continue in bad health for 

 sixty days — ^being afflicted with a continual thirst more particu- 

 larly — before the ripening of the fig in autumn ; whUe, on the 

 other hand, the crow is attacked by disease after that period. 

 The raven lays, at most, but five eggs. It is a vulgar belief, 

 that they couple, or else lay, by means of the beak ; and that, 

 consequently, if a pregnant woman happens to eat a raven's 

 egg, she mil be delivered by the mouth. It is also be- 

 lieved, that if the eggs are even so much as brought beneath 

 the roof, a difficult labour will be the consequence. Aristotle 

 denies it, and assures us in all good faith that there is no more 

 truth in this than in the same story about the ibis in Egypt ; 



* "Curse on your iU-betiding croak." See "The Farmer's Wife and 

 the Eaven," in Gay's Fables. 



" Aristotle says, that it was never to be seen in the Acropolis or Citadel 

 of Athens. 



* Only the case with the large raven, or Corvus corax of linnseus, the 

 others Uiing in flocks. 



