The Night Raven. 
187 
“It lias been an ancient receiv’d opinion, and the same also 
grounded upon the warrant of the sacred Scriptures, if I mistake not, 
that such is the property of the raven that from the time his young 
ones are hatched or disclosed, until he seeth what colour they will be 
of, he never taketh care of them, nor ministreth any food unto them; 
therefore it is thought that they are in the mean space nourished with 
the heavenly dew. And so much also doth the kingly prophet David 
affirm, which giveth fodder unto the cattle , and feedeth the youncf 
ravens that call upon him. Psal. 147, 9. The raven, when he per- 
ceiveth his young ones to be penfeather’d and black like himself, then 
doth he labour by all means to foster and cherish them from thence¬ 
forward.” (Page 222.) 
Why the raven should be so deficient both in common 
sense and in parental affection the worthy herald does 
not attempt to explain. 
By the Scandinavians the raven was consecrated to 
Odin. By the early Christians it was tranferred from 
him to St. Martin, who inherited Odin’s reputation for 
prophetic knowledge. Hence its name, “ St. Martin’s bird.” 
It is not quite clear what bird was meant by the 
night raven. Spenser writes :— 
“ And after him owles and night ravens flew, 
The hateful messengers of heavy tidings.” 
(Faerie Queene , ii. 7, 23.) 
Lyly also classes these two birds together: “ The owle 
hath not shrikt at the window, or the night raven croked, 
both being fatal ” (Sappho and Phaon). These passages 
would seem to have reference to the raven itself, but it 
has been suggested that the bittern, from the weird 
drum-like sound of its cry, is meant. Harrison perhaps 
speaks of the latter, when he says 
“ There is no cause why I should describe the cormorant amongse 
hawkes, of which some be blacke and manie pied chiefelie about the 
He of Elie, where they are taken for the night raven, except I should 
call him a water hawke.” ( Eolinshed , vol. i. p. 382.) 
