On Crows 



19 



In these respects they are so many Napoleon Bonapartes, 

 consummate in the ability to attain their ends, but utterly 

 regardless of the rights of others. The comparison might be 

 carried into detail, for they are when domesticated museum- 

 makers, eager to gather what others value, whilst unable them- 

 selves to appreciate the worth of what they have stolen. The 

 raven, the magpie and the jackdaw are thieves by nature and 

 collectors by instinct. These birds have, however, other attrac- 

 tive features of character. They are all more or less social, 

 some, the rooks for instance, living in well-regulated com- 

 munities, and all of them are willing to make friends with man 

 and to receive a certain amount of education. In confinement 

 they become attached to their patrons and show no wish to 

 revert to the wild state. 



The raven is the head of this family and may perhaps be 

 allowed to rank as the king of birds. He takes this dignity 

 in virtue of his complete organisation and his developed 

 intellect. In the Bible legend ravens were most appropri- 

 ately selected as worthy to bring the Prophet's food. 



ADVANTAGES OF VISUALISATION. 



Do you visualise ? Let me explain. To visualise is to see 

 the absent thing by the aid of the mind's eye. It is a very 

 useful faculty ; is essential to vivid imaginative realisation. 

 Those who visualise easily are able to reinforce their will- 

 power and often to make it efficient where it might otherwise 

 fail. You see the steaming coffee-cup, the covered dish of 

 bacon, and the morning's Times, which will all be soon await- 

 ing you on the table, and you leap out of bed. You are punctual 

 where a man of dull imagination for want of visualisation might 

 have been late. A more poetic illustration of the power of 

 visualisation is afforded in Wordsworth's lines describing the 

 effects of the song of a caged thrush in a London street. 

 Wordsworth evidently enjoyed a strong visualistic power, as 

 indeed do all poets. It is essential to the craft. It is also 

 essential to the naturalist. 



