RAVEN. 439 
dison alludes to the raven’s loquacity as the cause of 
this change: 
The raven once in snowy plumes was drest. 
White as the whitest dove’s unsullied breast; 
His tongue, his prating tongue, has changed him quite 
To sooty blackness, from the purest white. 
In clear weather ravens may be seen at a great 
height in the air. They fly in pairs, and make a 
deep loud noise, which differs from their common 
croaking. Their greedy disposition, and appetite 
for carrion, make them of great service in the 
neighbourhood of towns and cities, especially in 
warm countries, where they devour the rotten car- 
casses and filth that would otherwise prove a nui- 
sance. In Greenland they feed on the offal of the 
seals, and on the shell-fish they find upon the shore ; 
these they carry to a height, and drop them on a 
rock to break the shell and get at the contents. The 
Greenlanders are said to eat their flesh, to use their 
wings for brushes, and to split the quills into fish- 
ing-lines. 
Among the American savages, the raven is the 
emblem of returning health, and his croaking voice 
is mimicked by their physicians when they invoke 
him in behalf of the sick. 
