152 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



How oft hath affection — Begone thou wild dream! 

 Proceed we to pencil the rest of our theme. 



Logan has 



'* The Raven croaks the dirge of death." 

 A modern poet has also taken advantage of the superstition. 



" All nations have their omens drear, 

 Their legends wild of woe and fear. 

 To Cambria look — the peasant see, 

 Bethink him of Glendowerdy, 

 And shun " the Spirit's Blasted Tree." 



Scott's Marmion. 



In the notes to the sixth Canto of which is a poem by the Rev. 

 George Warrington, entitled the Spirit's Blasted Tree, that 

 contains the following lines : 



tf Three ravens gave the note of death 



As through mid air they winged their way ; 

 Then o'er his head, in rapid flight, 



They croak, — they scent their destined prey. 



Ill omened bird ! as legends say, 



Who hast the wondrous power to know, 



While health fills high the throbbing veins, 

 The fated hour when blood must flow." 



Sir Walter Sgott has thus alluded to the Raven in the 

 Lady of the Lake. 



" Seems he not Malice, like a ghost 

 That hovers o'er a slanghter'd host ? 

 Or Raven on the blasted oak, 

 That, watching while the deer is broke, 

 His morsel claims with sullen croak?" 



Whatever might have been the opinions concerning this bird 



