The Raven 



Authorities. — Gambel {Corvus cacalotl), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. iii. 

 1847, p. 203; Heermann, Rept. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. x., pt. vi., 1859, p. 54 (habits) 

 Linton, Bull. Cooper Orn. Club, vol. i., 1899, pp. 68-69 (nest and eggs); Willett, Pac 

 Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 68 (status in s. Calif.; crit.) ; Dawson, Condor, vol 

 xviii., 1916, p. 28 (status in Calif.); Howell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 191 7, pp 

 69-71 (crit.; meas. ; nesting habits on coastal islands). 



IN THE Raven we behold not alone the ranking member of the 

 order Passeres, but the most highly developed of birds. Quick-witted, 

 cunning, and audacious, this fowl of sinister aspect has been invested by 

 peoples in all ages with a mysterious and semi-sacred character. His 

 ominous croakings were thought to have prophetic import, while his 

 preternatural shrewdness has made him, with many, a symbol of divine 

 knowledge. Primitive man, especially, felt the spell of his somber pres- 

 ence, and the Raven was as deeply imbedded in the folklore of the mari- 

 time Grecian tribes and of the hardy Norsemen, as he is today in that of 

 the Haida Indians of Alaska or the Zuni of New Mexico. 



That our own Indians held the Raven in the highest reverence is 

 evidenced by the following curious fragment, attributed to Father Tor- 

 quemada. 1 The place is "the island of St. Catherine" [now Santa Cruz 

 Island?], and the time about the middle of the Eighteenth Century. The 

 Spaniards are visiting a heathen temple on the then populous island, 

 where birds are sacrificed in great numbers to ' 'some devil. 



"It happened that when the foldiers came to fee this temple, they 

 found within the faid circle, two crows, confiderably larger than ordinary, 

 which at the approach of the Spaniards flew away, but alighted among the 

 rocks in the neighborhood. The foldiers feeing them of fuch uncommon fize, 

 fired their guns and killed them. At this, an Indian, who had attended 

 the Spaniards as a guide, fell into an agony. I was informed that they 

 believed the devil fpoke to them in thefe crows, and thence held them in 

 great veneration. Sometime after, one of the foldiers going that way, 

 faw fome Indian women wafhing fifh on the shore, but fome crows came 

 up to them, and with their beaks, took the fifh from their hands, whilst 

 they observed a profound filence, not daring fo much as to look at them 

 much lefs frighten them away. Nothing therefore could feem more 

 horrible to the Californians, than that the Spaniards fhould fhoot at 

 thefe refpectable birds. ' ' 



Although confined now to the wilderness and the waste places, 

 where his persistent misconduct has exiled him, the Raven is still in a 

 sense the dominant bird of the Northern Hemisphere. No other bird, 

 unless it be the regal falcon, successfully disputes his sway; and wherever 



'By John Truster in- "The Habitable World Described," pub. 1788-1795. Sei Daggett in "The Condor," vol. X 

 p. 135-137, July, 1918. 



