THE RAVEN. 
291 
should exhibit the same disposition to carry off shining 
metallic bodies and other articles, totally unfit either 
for food or to be used in the construction of its nest. 
Mr Kendall, in crossing the height of land which 
divides the waters that flow towards Hudson’s Bay 
from those which fall into the Arctic Sea, saw a raven 
flying off* with something in his claws, pursued by a 
number of his companions. The flock being fired at, 
the object of contention was dropped, and proved to be 
the lock of a chest!”* 
* e( With the exception of the snipe, no bird seems more universally 
spread over the surface of our globe than the raven, inhabiting 
every zone, the hot, the temperate, and the severe ; feeding upon 
and removing noxious substances from the earth, of which it 
obtains intimation by means of a faculty we have little conception 
of. Sight it cannot be ; and we know not of any fetor escaping 
from an animal, previous to putrescence, so subtile as to call these 
scavengers of nature from the extremity of one country to that of 
another ; for it is manifest, from the height which they preserve 
in their flight, and the haste they are making, that their departure 
has been from some far distant station, having a remote and urgent 
object in contemplation. 
“ In England, the raven does not seem to abound ; but it is most 
common on the shores of harbours, or near great rivers, where 
animal substances are more frequently to be met with than in 
inland places. In Greenland and Iceland, where putrescent fishy 
substances abound, they appear to be almost domesticated. Horace 
calls the raven 4 Annosa Cornix and in a tame state it has 
attained a very long life. How long extended its existence may 
be, when roaming in an unrestricted state, we have no means of 
ascertaining. This liberty may be most favourable to longevity ; 
yet, from the numerous contingencies attending the condition of 
these creatures, it is probable that few of them live out all their 
days, so as to become the 6 bird of ages.’ However, the supposed 
longevity they have attained, their frequent mention and agency 
in Holy Writ, the obscure knowledge we possess of their powers and 
motives, with the gravity of their deportment, like an ‘ all knowing 
bird,’ have acquired for them, from very remote periods, the 
veneration of mankind. The changes of our manners and ideas, 
in respect to many things, have certainly deprived them of much 
of this reverence ; yet the almost supernatural information which 
they obtain of the decease, or approaching dissolution, of an animal, 
claims still some admiration for them. This supposed faculty of 
