CORVUS CORAX, Zinn.

Raven. HI

Corvus corax, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 29.
maximus, Scopoli. |
clericus, Sparrm. Mus. Carls., tab.
leucopheus, Vieill. Gal. des Oise tome i

c }

 

- p. 155, pl. 100.

 

Tue Corvide (Ravens, Crows, Rooks, and D

) i aws) are very widely distributed over the globe; but there
are certain portions of it in which they ;

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moa are never found: thus, in the Old World, none occur in New Zealand,
nor, I believe, in Polynesia, and, in the New, none south of Mexico. This well-marked family of birds has been |
nera, by the separation of the Rooks and Daws from the R
again from each other; but, for myself, I prefer ret

divided into several ge |
: avens and Crows, and

aining them all under the old generic name of Corvus.
It is the prevailing opinion among ornithologists that our R

supposed to be, and that the American and Thibetan species, hitherto regarded as identical with it, are
distinct ; but the settlement of the question is of no moment in connexion with the history of the Raven |
par excellence. |

The of the Coreus corar is said to extend eastward to the Punjaub and Affghanistan. 1
It is also abundant in Palestine and Asia Minor, throughout the length

Africa, and all parts of Central Europe, even as far north as the Quickiock Fells

aven Is not so ubiquitous as it was formerly

range

in Lapland, and beyond
oh Tee b sce : . . 1° . . ° e .
this to the North Cape. It is also found in Siberia, and in Iceland is abundant and stationary. In the Bri-

tish Islands it was formerly far more numerous than it is now.

 

The keepers, of course, are its most deadly
enemies; for although many of them are deterred by the superstitions connected with this “ bird of ill
omen” from shooting it, they relieve their consciences by laying in its way a strychnined rabbit, which it
eats, and either tumbles over on the spot or flies to the nearest water to slake its burning thirst, and there
ceases to live, leaving its body to be devoured by a gull, a fox, or a hungry dog, which in its turn falls a
victim to the virulence of the poison. I have undoubted evidence that this is often done in Cornwall, and I
believe that the practice also prevails in other counties. Time was when every rocky headland had its pair
of Ravens living in harmony with the Peregrine and the Sea-Eagle ; and this is still the case on the rugged
coasts of Ireland, the western part of Scotland, and the Hebrides.
with the Eagle and the Falcon.

At St. Kilda, it still holds its own
The Raven does not, however, confine its breeding-haunts to rocks,
nor always rear its young amid the din of the thousand voices of sea-birds. The “ Raven tree” still stands
in many of our inland counties; and on it the bird occasionally places its nest. In other countries its habits
are precisely similar to those seen in our own; but in Palestine, as we learn from Mr. Tristram, it also breeds
on the mosque and ruimed towers. Although at the breeding-season only a solitary pair are to be found in
any given locality, there are times when several in small flocks, and several together, may be observed in
company winging their way home to their roosting-places, like the gregarious Rook. If brought up from the
nest, it bears confinement apparently with pleasure and contentment; for individuals have been known to
spend the whole of their time from year’s end to year’s end (I might almost say from century to century, so
long-lived is the bird) in some brewer’s yard, or about the premises of a country inn. Here it sits about on
any little eminence, croaks out its harsh note at strangers, gives battle to stray dogs, catches weakly sparrows,
rats, and mice (and ducklings and young chickens, if not defended by their mothers), observes, apparently with
interest, all that is going on, and becomes completely one of the establishment. In astate of nature, on the other
hand, they are shy, mistrustful, and not easily approached. In the air their actions are playful, and their evolutions
highly graceful and interesting, sometimes circling at an immense height, at others chasing and dipping after each
other like Rooks when presaging wind. Those who have witnessed these aerial evolutions, the flight of a pair
in pursuit of their prey over the mountain-side, or their apparently playful tiltings with the Kagle, cannot but
have admired their sweeping and graceful motions ; at all events, mine were feelings of delight when watching
them with never-tiring eyes. The Duke of Argyll, whose powers of observation are of the keenest, and whose
opinion may always be relied upon, saw, at Inverary, a Raven sporting about in the air, with something strange
in its bill, which, after a time, it let fall to the ground, On examination, it proved to be the expanded cone
of a silver fir. However singular this freak of the bird may have been, it was attended with a circum-
for the cone was covered with a parasitic plant (Phelonites strobilina)

 

stance of no ordinary interest ;
so extremely rare that few botanists possess it, and there was not a spe
d the cone to me, I transferred it, with the rare fungus still attached, to the

cimen in the British Museum until,

the Duke having kindly presente

national collection.

of the Atlas range in North |