472 
RURAL HOURS 
" The shortening winter's day is near a close, 
The miry beasts returning frae the plough. 
The blackening trains o' Craws, to their repose, 
The toil-worn Cotter frae his labor goes," — 
says Burns, in the " Cotter's Saturday Night," and he alluded to 
the rook, for the European crow is not gregarious. Our birds 
are very partial to evergreens ; they generally build in these trees, 
and roost in them ; and often at all seasons we see them perched 
on the higher branches of a dead hemlock or pine, looking over 
the country. 
The Raven is rare in this State ; it is found, however, in the 
northern counties, but is quite unknown on the coast. About 
Niagara they are said to be common. They do not agree with 
the common crow, or rather where they abound the crow seldom 
shows itself ; at least such is observed to be the case in this 
country. In Sweden, also, where the raven is common, the crow 
is rare. The raven is much the largest bird, nearly eight inches 
longer, measuring twenty-six inches in length, and four feet in 
breadth ; the crow measures eighteen and a half inches in length, 
and three feet two inches in breadth. Both the crow and the 
raven mate for life, and attain to a great age. They both have 
a habit of carrying up nuts and shell-fish into the air, when they 
drop them on rocks, for the purpose of breaking them open. 
It is said that the Southern Indians invoke the Raven in be- 
half of their sick. And the tribes on the Missouri are very par- 
tial to Ravens' plumes when putting on their war- dress. 
Tuesday, SOth. — Cooler. Wood-piles are stretching before the 
village doors ; the fuel for one winter being drawn, sawed, and piled 
away the year before it is wanted. They are very busy with this 
