54 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
pining with famine, the raven is active and healthy, busily 
employed in prowling for prey, or sporting in the coldest at- 
mosphere. As the heats at the line do not oppress him, so he 
bears the cold of the polar countries with equal indifference. 
He is sometimes indeed seen milk-white, and this may pro- 
bably be the effect of the rigorous climates of the north. A 
raven may be reclaimed to almost every purpose to which 
birds can be converted. lie may be trained up for fowling 
like a hawk ; he may be taught to fetch and carry like a 
spaniel; he may be taught to speak like a parrot; but the 
most extraordinary of all is, that he can be taught to sing 
like a man. I have heard (says a modern author) a raven sin<r 
with great distinctness, truth, and humour. 
Indeed, when the raven is taken as a domestic, he has 
many qualities that render him extremely amusing. Busy, 
inquisitive, and impudent, he goes every where, affronts and 
drives off the dogs, plays his pranks on the poultry, and is 
particularly assiduous in cultivating the good-will of the 
cook maid, who seems to be the favourite of the family. But 
then, with the amusing qualities of a favourite, he often also 
has the vices and defects. He is a glutton by nature, and a 
thief by habit. He does not confine himself to petty depre- 
dations on the pantry or the larder ; he soars at more magni- 
ficent plunder; at spoils which lie can neither exhibit nor 
enjoy ; but which, like a miser, he rests satisfied with having 
the Satisfaction of sometimes visiting and contemplating in 
secret. A piece of money, a tea-spoon, or a ring, are always 
tempting baits to his avarice; these he will sidy seize upon, 
and, if not watched, will catty to his favourite hole. 
In his wild state, the raven is an active and greedy plun- 
derer. Nothing comes amiss to him. If in his flights he 
perceives no hopes of carrion, and his scent is so exquisite 
that he can smell it at a vast distance, he then contents him- 
self with more unsavoury food, fruits, insects, and the acci- 
dental dessert of a dung-hill. This bird chiefly builds its 
nest in trees, and lays live or six eggs of a pale green co- 
lour, marked with small brownish spots. 
Notwithstanding the injury these birds do in picking out 
the eyes of sheep and lambs, when they find them sick and 
helpless, a vulgar respect is paid them as being the birds that 
fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness. This preposses- 
sion in favour of the raven is of very ancient date, as the 
Romans themselves, who thought the bird ominous, paid it, 
from motives of fear, the most profound veneration. One of 
these that had been kept in the temple of Castor, as Pliny in- 
forms us, flew down into the shop ofa tayTor, who took much 
