8 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
THE RAVEN. CORVUS CORAX. 
{Plate I.) 
Corvus corax, Linn., S. N., 1 , p. 155 (1766); Macg., Br. B., | 
i., p. 498 ; Newt. ed. Yarr. Br. B., ii., p. 259 ; Sharpe, I 
Cat. B. Brit. Mus., iii., p. 14; Dresser, B. Eur., iv., p. I 
567, pi. 265 ; Seeb., Br. B., ii., p. 532, pi. 16, figs. 1, 3 ; I 
Saunders, Man., p. 233; Lilford, Coi. Fig. Br. B., pt. I 
x. (1889). 
Adult Male — Of large size. Plumage black, with purplish 
gloss, greenish on the wings and tail ; on the fore-neck some 1 
long lanceolate feathers, forming throat-hackles; bill and legs I 
black ; iris brown. Total length, 24 inches ; bill from front, - 
3-15 ; wing, 17-5 ; tail, 10-5 ; tarsus, 2-85. 
Adult Female.— Similar to the male in plumage, and not 
inferior in size. 
Range In Great Britain. — Local, and diminishing in numbers. 
A few pain are still to be found in the southern counties, but 
it is only in the wilder parts of the north and west that the 
Raven now occurs regularly. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Throughout the whole of 
the northern portions of the Old and New Worlds, in America 
from the high north to Mexico and Guatemala, and in the Old 
World to the North Mediterranean countries. Further east ; 
it reaches to the line of the Himalayas, and is found in I 
North-western India, and extends through Central Asia and I 
Siberia. 
Hahits. — Owing to continued persecution, the Raven is 
becoming rarer year by year throughout the British Islands. I 
Its large size and undoubted power render it a formidable 
enemy to farmers, and although, like all members of the 
Corvidce , the Raven is an omnivorous feeder, it is well I 
known as a slaughterer of lambs, fawns, and poultry, whenever 
it gets the chance ; but on the other hand it destroys 
numbers of rats and other vermin, and it also clears up 
carrion. In other countries, where it is not so persecuted, the i 
bird is much tamer, and Mr. Howard Saunders says that in , 
Majorca he has seen a pair of Ravens following the plough i 
