118 
RAVEN. 
" As wicked dew, as e'er iny mother brushed, 
With Raven's feather, from unwholesome fen. 
Drop on you both 1"* 
The ferocious \yife of Macbeth, on being advised of the approach of 
Duncan, whose death she had conspired, thus exclaims : 
'' The Raven himself is hoarse, 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan, 
Under my battlements l"t 
The Moor of Venice says : 
" It comes o'er my memory, 
As doth the Raven o'er the infected house, 
Boding to all."J 
The last quotation alludes to the supposed habit of this bird's flying 
over those houses which contain the sick, whose dissolution is at hand, 
and thereby announced. Thus Marlowe, in the Jew of Malta, as cited 
by Malone : 
" The sad presaging Raven tolls 
The sick man's passport in her hollow beak. 
And in the shadow of the silent night 
Doth shake contagion from her sable wing." 
But it is the province of philosophy to dispel those illusions which 
bewilder the mind, by pointing out the simple truths which Nature has 
been at no pains to conceal, but which the folly of mankind has shrouded 
in all the obscurity of mystery. 
The Raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, but is more 
common in the interior. On the lakes, and particularly in the neigh- 
borhood of the Falls of the river Niagara, they are numerous ; and it is 
a remarkable fact, that where they so abound, the Common Crow, Q. 
corone, seldom makes its appearance ; being intimidated, it is conjec- 
tured, by the superior size and strength of the former, or by an antipa- 
thy which the two species manifest towards each other. This I had n.n 
opportunity of observing myself, in a journey during the months of 
August and September, along the lakes Erie and Ontario. The Ravens 
were seen every day, prowling about in search of the dead fish, which 
the waves are continually casting ashore, and which afford them an 
abundance of a favorite food ; but I did not see or hear a single Crow 
within several miles of the lakes ; and but vei'y few through the whole 
of the Genesee country. 
* Tempest, act i., scene 2. 
X Othello, act iv., scene 1. 
t Act i., scene 5. 
