RAVEN. 
205 
iar about the house. Pliny speaks of the Raven being 
tamed, and taught to chase like the Falcon ; and Scaliger 
affirms, that Louis the Twelfth had one that was trained 
to attack the Partridge. Albert saw another at Naples, 
which not only caught Patridges and Pheasants, but birds 
of its own species, when urged by the presence of the 
Falconer* 
The sense of smell, or rather that of sight, is very 
acute in the Raven, so that he discerns the carrion, on 
which he often feeds, at a great distance. Thucydides 
even attributes to him the sagacity of avoiding to feed on 
animals which had died of the plague. Pliny relates a 
singular piece of ingenuity employed by this bird to quench 
his thirst ; he had observed water near the bottom of a 
narrow-necked vase, to obtain which, he is said to have 
thrown in pebbles, one at a time, until the pile elevated 
the water within his reach. Nor does this trait, singular 
as it is, appear to be much more sagacious than that 
of carrying up nuts and shell-fish into the air, and drop- 
ping them on rocks, for the purpose of breaking them to 
obtain their contents, otherwise beyond his reach ; facts 
observed by men of credit, and recorded as an instinct of 
the Raven, by Pennant and Latham. It is however seldom 
that this bird, any more than the rapacious kinds, feels 
an inclination for drinking, as their thirst is usually 
quenched by the blood and juices of their prey. The Ra- 
vens are also more social than the birds of prey, which 
arises from the promiscuous nature and consequent abun- 
dance of their food, which allows a greater number to sub- 
sist together in the same place, without being urged to the 
stern necessity of solitude or famine, a condition to which 
the true rapacious birds are always driven. The habits 
of this species are much more generally harmless, than is 
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