TRAVELLING RAVENS. 
“ While travelling in Wiltshire I pnt np at the ‘ Bed Lion,’ 
at Hnngerford, and unfortunately drove a wheel of my chaise 
over the leg of my Newfoundland dog. While we were exa- 
mining the injury done to the dog’s foot, a raven named ‘ Bafe,’ 
belonging to the inn, was evidently a concerned spectator, for 
the minute the dog was tied up under the manger with my 
horses, Bafe not only visited him, but fetched him bones, and 
attended upon him with particular marks of kindness. The 
bird’s kindness was so marked that I observed it to the ostler. 
He informed me that the raven had been brought up since a 
fledgling with a dog, and that the affection between them was 
mutual. Bafe’s poor dog unfortunately broke his leg, and 
during the time he was confined the bird waited upon him con- 
stantly. One night the stable-door was by accident closed, and 
the raven shut out, but the next morning the bottom part of 
the door was so pecked away, that in a short time longer an 
entrance would have been effected.” 
My last raven story shall be of an inimitable raven, and told 
by that inimitable writer, Mr. Dickens. He says, — 
“ As it is Mr. Waterton’s opinion that ravens are gradually 
becoming extinct in England, I offer a few words about mine. 
“ The raven in this story (Barnaby Budge) is a compound 
of two great originals, of whom I have been at different times 
the proud possessor. The first was in the bloom of his youth, 
when he was discovered in modest retirement in London by a 
friend of mine, and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir 
Hugh Evans says of Anne Page, ‘ good gifts,’ which he im- 
proved by study and attention in a most exemplary manner. 
He slept in a stable, generally on horse-back, and so terrified a 
Newfoundland dog by his preternatural sagacity, that he has 
been known, by the mere superiority of his genius, to walk off 
unmolested with the dog’s dinner from before his face. He was 
rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil 
hour, his stable was newly painted. He observed the work- 
men closely, saw that they were careful of the paint, and im- 
mediately burned to possess it. On their going to dinner, he 
ate up all they had left behind, consisting of a pound or two of 
white lead, and this youthful indiscretion terminated in death. 
“ While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend 
of mine in Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven, 
which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for a consi- 
deration, and sent up to me. The first act of this sage was 
to administer to the effects of his predecessor by disinterring 
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