The Raven. 



369 



and show mucli devotion to them, until they are fully fledged 

 and capable of sustaining themselves, when they drive them 

 away ruthlessly with beak and claws. 



Methods of Capture. — Eavens are very wily, and exces- 

 sively cautious and suspicious ; hence, they are diflScult to 

 ensnare. They can be taken in spring traps, placed by the 

 seashore, which they are known to frequent in search of pro- 

 vender. The trap selected should be similar to that used 

 for taking rabbits or rats ; it should be lightly covered with 

 dry sand, and surrounded with pieces of horseflesh or other 

 carrion, dead mice, rats, or small birds. Old birds so taken 

 are very vicious, and it is not a pleasant task to have to 

 handle them ; but young birds — and these are the most 

 easily caught — are less difficult to deal with. If, before re- 

 leasing the captives, their wings be cut tolerably short with 

 a pair of scissors, it will deprive them, in a great measure, 

 of their strength and ferocity. The young birds soon become 

 reconciled to the change, but the old ones nearly always 

 continue vindictive and revengeful. 



Food and Treatment. — In the wild state. Ravens are 

 perfect scavengers, and devour any kind of putrid flesh they 

 can find. They eat fish of all kinds, either fresh or putrid, 

 and also rats, mice, frogs, toads, or, in fact, any kind of bird 

 or animal that they can conveniently seize and destroy. When 

 hard pressed by hunger, they will eat ground beetles and other 

 insects, and also grain, especially oats and barley. They 

 possess large appetites, and are, probably, with the exception 

 of vultures, the most voracious birds in existence. 



In a state of domestication they are quite omnivorous, and 

 will eat flesh of all kinds, fish, fowl, biscuits, bread, potatoes, 

 ^c, &c. ; in fact, the scraps of meat from the dinner table, 

 with cold boiled potatoes and biscuit, make a good and 

 much-appreciated meal. To keep the Raven in good health 

 and plumage, it should have facilities for bathing every day. 



Rearing the Young. — Procure them when about ten or 

 twelve days old, and feed on raw bullocks' liver, or pieces of 

 any sort of coarse flesh, thoroughly boiled ; or on earthworms, 

 or cooked fish of any kind, mixed with moistened bread. A 

 change of diet is at all times most beneficial. When the birds 

 get older, say when about nineteen or twenty days old, give 

 flesh meat more freely. At the age of five or six weeks they 



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