14 
Its faculty of scent must be very acute ; 
for in the coldest of the winter days, at 
Hudson's Bay, w hen every kind of effluvia 
is almost instantaneously destroyed by the 
frost; Buffaloes and other beasts have 
been killed where not one of these birds 
was to be seen, but in a few hours scores 
of them would gather about the spot to 
pick up the offal and blood. 
In the act of feeding, it shifts its prey 
from the beak to the feet, and from the 
feet to the beak alternately. 
In clear weather they fly in pairs at a 
great height, making a deep loud noise* 
different from the common croaking. Du- 
ring these flights they may frequently be 
observed to turn as it were upon their 
backs and fall from a considerable eleva- 
tion, this is supposed to be occasioned by 
the bird moving one of its feet in order to 
scratch its head, which action occasions it 
to lose its equilibrium. 
In every superstitious country the Raven 
has been deemed an ominous bird, and the 
harbinger of impending calamities. Grave 
Historians have described pitched battles 
