206 
OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 
usually imagined ; they are useful to the farmer in the 
destruction they make of moles and mice, and are often 
very well contented with insects and earth-worms. 
Though spread over the whole world, they are rarely 
ever birds of passage, enduring the winters even of the 
arctic circle, # or the warmth of Mexico, St. Domingo, 
and Madagascar. f They are particularly attached to the 
rocky eyries where they have been bred and paired. 
Throughout the year they are observed together in nearly 
equal numbers, and they never entirely abandon this 
adopted home. If they descend into the plain, it is to 
collect subsistence ; but they resort to the low grounds 
more in winter than summer, as they avoid the heat 
and dislike to wander from their cool retreats. They 
never roost in the woods, like Crows ; and have sufficient 
sagacity to choose in their rocky retreats a situation de- 
fended from the winds of the north, commonly under the 
natural vault formed by an extending ledge or cavity of 
the rock. Here they retire during the night in compa- 
nies of 15 to 20. They perch upon the bushes which 
grow straggling in the clefts of the rocks ; but they 
form their nests in the rocky crevices, or in the holes of 
the mouldering walls, at the summits of ruined towers ; 
and sometimes upon the high branches of large and soli- 
tary trees. After they have paired, their fidelity appears 
to continue through life. The male expresses his attach- 
ment by a particular strain of croaking, and they are often 
observed caressing, by approaching their bills, with as 
much semblance of affection as the truest turtle doves. 
In temperate climates, the Raven begins to lay in the 
months of February or March. The eggs are 5 or 6, of a 
pale muddy bluish-green, marked with numerous spots and 
lines of dark olive-brown. She sits about 20 days, and 
* Richardson, in Parry’s Voyage. 
| See Flacour. 
