RAVEN. 
283 
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 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 of 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 protect it from this thievish connoisseur, who, if he have an op- 
portunity, 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 back, it tears off the flesh deliberately ; and 
what renders the ferocity more detestable, it is not incited by the 
cravings of hunger, but by the appetite for carnage ; for it can 
subsist on fruits, seed of all kinds, and indeed may be considered 
as an omnivorous animal.” This is mere fable, and of a piece 
with many other absurdities of the same agreeable but fanciful 
author. 
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 Si- 
* 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. 
