RAVENS. 
231 
to destroy as many as they can, yet give them credit 
for the gift of prophecy, and have a high opinion of 
them as soothsayers. And the priests of the North 
American Indians wear, as a distinguishing mark of 
their sacred profession, two or three Raven-skins, 
fixed to the girdle behind their hack, in such a man- 
ner that the tails stick out horizontally from the 
body. They have also a split Raven-skin on the 
head, so fastened as to let the beak project from the 
forehead. 
CROWS AND ROOKS. 
People who live in towns, or pay little attention to 
these matters, would no doubt consider the above- 
mentioned birds, as one and the same, alike as they 
are in size and colour, and seen, as they usually are, 
spread over our fields, or uttering their well-known 
cawings on the top of some hedge. They are, how- 
ever, as distinct in their characters and habits as a 
hare and a rabbit. The real Crow, commonly called 
the Carrion Crow ( Corvus cor one ,) is the next link in 
the chain after the Raven, which it resembles far more 
nearly than it does the Rook. The male and his mate, 
for example, seldom associate with the rest of their 
species except, as we shall show by-and-by, for parti- 
cular purposes, but generally remain in pairs; their 
favourite food too, like the Raven, is carrion, and 
they will watch their opportunity, and pounce down 
on young lambs, or even sheep, when they find them, 
what is called, cast, that is, thrown upon their backs 
in a furrow, and unable to rise. In these cases the 
eye is the point which they first attack ; but smaller 
