THE RAVEN AND THE DOG. 
357 
We knew a similar instance of a strong attachment formed 
between a Raven and a large otter-dog. The Raven had 
been taken when young, and reared in a stahle-yard, where 
the dog was kept chained up. A friendship soon commenced, 
which, increasing from little to more, in time ripened into a 
most extraordinary degree of intimacy. At first, the bird 
was satisfied with hopping about in the vicinity of the kennel, 
and occasionally pecking a hasty morsel from the dog’s 
feeding-pan, when the latter had finished his meal ; finding, 
however, no interruption on the part of his friend, the Raven 
soon became a constant attendant at meal times, and taking 
up his position on the edge of the dish, acted the part of a 
regular guest, and partaker of the dog’s dinner, which con- 
sisted usually of meal and milk, with occasional scraps of 
offal meat, a piece of which the bird would often snatch up, 
almost from the very mouth of the dog, and hasten beyond the 
reach of his chain, as if to tantalize his four-footed friend, 
and then hopping towards him, would play about and hang it 
close to his nose, and then as speedily, at the moment the dog 
was preparing to snap it up, would dart off beyond the reach 
of the chain. At other times he would hide the piece of 
meat under a stone, and then coming hack, with a cunning 
look, would perch upon the dog’s head. It was observed, 
however, that he always ended his pranks, by either sharing, 
or giving up the whole piece to his friend, the dog. 
The intimacy continued for a length of time, and ter- 
minated only with the death of the poor Raven, who was killed 
by a hoy throwing a stone at it ; for which he was very 
properly dismissed from the service of his master. The 
author would here suggest the propriety of parents and 
teachers losing no opportunity of instilling into the minds of 
children a feeling of kindness and benevolence to the brute 
creation. He has again and again witnessed with pain the 
utter absence of these feelings in children, whose daily lessons 
at school from the Bible ought to have been attended with 
different effects, — one instance amongst the thousands that 
might he adduced, of the facility with which religious truths 
can he taught by a routine and common-place process, and by 
