so. Some, however, understand .1 rabs to he there meant. Nee Elijah.
The raven belongs to the order Insessores, family
Corvidat. The raven is so gem-rally confounded with the carrion crow that even in the works of naturalists the figure of the latter has sometimes been substituted for that of the former, and the manners of both have been mixed up together. They are. it is true, very similar, belonging to the same Linnsean genus, Conws, and having the same intensely black color; hut the raven is the larger, weighing about three pounds; has proportionably a smaller head, and a bill fuller and stouter at the point. Its black color is more iridescent (hence the comparison to the bridegroom's locks. Cant, v. 1 1 i. with gleams of purple passing into green, while that of the crow is nmre steel-blue; the raven is also gifted with greater sagacity ; may lie taught to articu- late -words; is naturally Observant and solitary: lives in pairs; has a most acute scent: and Hies to a great height. Unlike the crow, which is gregarious in its habits, the raven will not even sutler its young, from the moment they can shift for themselves, to remain within its haunt : and. therefore, though a bird found in nearly all countries, it is nowhere abundant I Bo-
Raveu (Corrus corax).
RAVEN
931
RAVENNA
chart, Hieroz. ii, 796 sq. ; Kimchi on Psa. xiv, 7). Whether the raven of Palestine is the common species, or the Corvas montanus of Temminck, is not quite de- termined; for there is of the ravens, or greater form of crows, a smaller group including two or three others, all similar in manners, and unlike the carrion crows (Cor- vus corone, Linn.), which are gregarious, and seeming- ly identical in both hemispheres. Sometimes a pair of ravens will descend without fear among a flight of crows, take possession of the carrion that may have at- tracted them, and keep the crows at a distance till they themselves are gorged. (Comp. Horace, Ep. i, 16, 48 ; Aristoph. Thesmopk. 9-42). The habits of the whole genus typified by the name 'oreb render it unclean in the Hebrew law; and the malignant, ominous expres- sion of the raven, together with the color of its plumage, powers of voice, and solitary habits, are the causes of that universal and often superstitious attention with which mankind have ever regarded it.
In the mythological history of the Gentiles, we find the appellation of Ravens bestowed upon an oracular order of priesthood. In Egypt, it seems, the temples of Ammon were served by such— perhaps those priests that occur in the catacombs playing on harps, and clothed in black. More than one temple in Greece had similar raven priests. It was the usual symbol of slaughter among the Scandinavians; and a raven ban- ner belonged to the Danes, and also to the Saxons; one occurs among the ensigns of the Normans in the Bayeux tapestry; and it was formerly a custom in the Benedic- tine abbeys on the Continent to maintain in a very large cage a couple of ravens, where several are record- ed to have lived above fifty years. The Raven of the Sea, that ominous bird in Northern mythology, is prop- erly the cormorant — the morvran of the Celtfe. Jew- ish and Arabian writers tell strange stories of this bird and its cruelty to its young ; hence, say some, the Lord's express care for the young ravens after they had been driven out of the nests by the parent birds ; but this belief in the raven's want of affection to its young is entirely without foundation. To the fact of the raven being a common bird in Palestine, and to its habit of flying restlessly about in constant, search for food to satisfy its voracious appetite, may, perhaps, be traced the reason for its being selected by our Lord and the inspired writers as the especial object of God's pro- viding care. There is something weird and shrewd in the expression of the raven's countenance; a union of cunning and malignity, which may have contributed to give it among widely severed nations, and in re- mote ages, a character for preternatural knowledge. Its black hue — the hue of night and of mourning — its recluse, solitary suspicion, and its harsh croak have no doubt increased its uncanny reputation. Certain it is that the " infausta comix" has long been feared and hated as the messenger of evil and the prog- nosticator of death, while the Romans dedicated it to Apollo as the god of divination. An anonymous writer familiar with the habits of the bird has ingen- iously suggested an explanation of its divining power. " The smell of death is so grateful to them that they utter a loud croak of satisfaction instantly on perceiv- ing it. In passing over sheep, if a tainted smell is per- ceptible, they cry vehemently. From this propensity in the raven to announce his satisfaction in the smell of death has probably arisen the common notion that he is aware of its approach among the human race, and foretells it by his croakings. I have no doubt the idea is founded in truth, although I think the coming event is not communicated to the raven by any immediate or supernatural impulse, but that in passing over a hu- man habitation from which a sickly or cadaverous smell may escape, it is perfectly natural for him to an- nounce his perception of it by his cries" {Zoologist, p. 217). The shepherd has a better reason for calling the raven a bird of ill omen. A more vigilant or more cruel enemy to the flock can hardly exist, and it fre-