RAVENS. 
185 
feathers get soaked, he can no longer defend himself, and 
perishes. 
Young Ravens, it is well known, may be easily tamed ; 
but they are so cunning and mischievous, that it is necessary 
for those who harbour them to keep a constant watch on 
their motions, for they will catch up anything that is glit- 
tering, and carry it off to some secret hiding-place. Stories 
without end might he told of their thieving propensities. 
Let one suffice : a gentleman’s butler having missed a great 
many silver spoons and other articles, without a suspicion 
as to who might he the thief, at last observed a tame Raven 
with one in his mouth, and watching him to his hiding- 
place, discovered more than a dozen. But pilferers as they 
are, and inclined to mischief, they have redeeming good 
qualities, which often make them deservedly great favourites, 
and they may he sometimes trained for useful purposes. 
Thus the landlord of an inn, in Cambridgeshire, was in 
possession of a Raven which frequently went hunting with a 
dog that had been bred up with him. On their arrival at 
a cover, the dog entered, and drove the hares and rabbits 
from the thicket, whilst the Raven, posted on the outside 
of the cover, seized every one that came in his way; when 
the dog immediately hastened to his assistance, and by their 
joint efforts nothing escaped. On various occasions the 
Raven has proved of more use than a ferret, and has been 
known to enter a barn with several dogs, and enjoy the sport 
of rat-hunting. The sagacity of these birds is certainly quite 
extraordinary, and might almost lead us to suppose that they 
were gifted with reasoning powers. 
It would be needless to enumerate the many instances 
which might be mentioned. We must quote a few, com- 
mencing with one communicated by a friend. All birds, we 
know, have an instinctive faculty of finding their way, when 
on the wing, to certain spots they have been accustomed to 
frequent, in which it might be supposed that eye-sight, from 
high elevation, might materially assist them; but in the 
following case it will be seen, that the inhabitants of the air 
are not in all cases indebted to this sense for discovering their 
