AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
279 
The ferocious wife 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 ! 
The Moor of Venice says: 
“It comes o’er my memory, 
As doth the Raven o’er the infected house, 
Boding to all.”t 
The last quotation alludes to the supposed habits of this 
bird flying over those houses which contain the sick, whose 
dissolution is at hand, and thereby announced. Thus Mar- 
lowe, 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 silent night 
Doth shake contagion from her sable wing.” 
But it is the province of philosophy to dispel those illu- 
sions 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 obscu- 
rity 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 neighbourhood of the Falls of the river 
Niagara, they are numerous; and it is a remarkable fact, 
that where they so abound, the common Crow, C. corone, 
seldom makes its appearance; being intimidated, it is con- 
jectured, by the superior size and strength of the former, or 
by the antipathy which the two species manifest towards 
other. This I had an 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 favourite food; but I did not see or 
hear a single Crow within several miles of the lakes; and 
but a very few through the whole of the Gennesee country. 
The food of this species is dead animal matter of all kinds, 
not excepting the most putrid carrion, which it devours in 
common with the Vultures; worms, grubs, reptiles and 
shell-fish, the last of which, in the manner of the Crow, it 
drops from a considerable height in the air, on the rocks, in 
order to break the shells; it is fond of birds eggs, and is 
often observed sneaking around the farm-house, in search 
of the eggs pf the domestic poultry, which it sucks with 
eagerness; it is likewise charged with destroying young 
ducks and chickens, and lambs which have been yeaned in 
a sickly state. The Raven, it is said, follows the hunters of 
deer for the purpose of falling heir to the offal;* and the 
huntsmen are obliged to cover their game, when it is left in 
the woods, with their hunting frocks, to secure it from this 
thievish connoisseur, who, if he have an opportunity, will 
attack the region of the kidneys and mangle the saddle 
without ceremony. 
Buffon says, that “the Raven plucks out the eyes of 
Buffaloes, and then fixing on the hack, tears off the flesh 
deliberately ; and what renders the ferocity more detestable, 
it is not incited by the cravings of hunger, but by the appe- 
tite for carnage; for it can subsist on fruits, seeds of all kinds, 
and indeed may be considered an omnivorous animal.” 
This is mere fable, and of a piece with many other absurdi- 
ties of the same agreeable, but fanciful author. I 
This species is found almost all over the habitable globe. 
We trace it in the north from Norway to Greenland, and 
hear of it in Kamtschatka. It is common every where in 
Russia and Siberia, except within the Arctic circle; and all 
through Europe. Kolben enumerates the Raven among the 
birds of the Cape of Good Hope; De Grandprd represents 
it as numerous in Bengal, where they are said to be protected 
for their usefulness; and the unfortunate La Perouse saw 
them at Baie de Castries, on the east coast of Tartary; 
likewise at Port des Francois ; 58° 37' north latitude, and 
139° 50' west longitude; and at Monterey Bay, north Cali- 
fornia. The English circumnavigators met with them at 
Nootka Sound; and at the Sandwich Islands, two being 
seen in the village of Kakooa; also at Owhyhee, and sup- 
posed to be adored there, as they were called Eatoos. Our 
intrepid American travellers, under the command of Lewis 
and Clark, shortly after they embarked on the river Colum- 
bia, saw abundance of Ravens, which were attracted thither 
by the immense quantity of dead salmon which lined the 
shores. They are found at all seasons in Hudson’s Bay; 
are frequent in Mexico; and it is more than probable that 
they inhabit the whole continent of America. 
The Raven measures, from the tip of the bill to the end 
of the tail, twenty-six inches, and is four feet in extent; the 
bill is large and strong, of a shining black, notched near the 
tip, and three inches long, the sestaceous feathers which 
cover the nostrils extend half its length; the eyes are black; 
the general colour is a deep glossy black, with steel-blue re- 
flections; the lower parts are less glossy ; the tail is rounded, 
* This is the case in those parts of the United States where the deer are 
hunted without dogs: where these are employed they are generally rewarded 
with the offal. 
Act i. scene 5. 
T Othello, act iv. scene 1. 
