RAVEN. 
227 
The food of the Raven varies at different 
seasons ; grains form but a small portion, though 
they are sometimes eaten ; * insects, and their 
larvffi, as they occur, may be occasionally preyed 
on, but they by no means form so general a por- 
tion of food as they do among the lesser species 
of Crows. The small mammalia are preyed on, 
and in spring, when all creatures are producing 
their offspring, the eggs of birds, and the young 
of animals are sought after and devoured ; and it 
is this carnivorous propensity which has caused 
to them so much persecution from the shepherd. 
They are undoubtedly very destructive both to 
the newly dropt lambs, and to weak sheep, and 
the extensive range of a pastoral farm renders 
watching or attention quite impossible ; but from 
this loss suffered by the tenant, must be subtracted 
the advantages derived from the check which they 
keep upon many of the smaller members of the 
animal kingdom, which, unless to a certain extent 
kept down, might, and on some occasions have, 
become extremely troublesome ; for in all our 
reasonings on the harm or advantages produced 
to man by various creatures, we are much too 
apt to look only at the question in immediate 
consideration, without at all examining its con- 
sequences on some other portion of living beings, 
or on the productions of the vegetable world. It 
is, however, from its depredations on the young 
lambs, that its persecution is chiefly carried on, 
and in many parts very considerable rewards 
* Heyskam, &c. 
