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on the trunk, and the entrance to it is always on the east side. They sometimes have as many as eighteen young ones.

These birds, in general, only run along the ground; but, being of a distrustful disposition, they are soon raised by alarm, when they usually fly to a great distance, before they again alight. Their food consists principally of insects and Lizzards. The male and female are always to be seen in company; or sometimes there are two females to one male, but never more. The Negroes esteem this Hornbill sacred, never killing it themselves, and always, if possible, preventing the Europeans from firing at it. They have a superstition that the death of one of these birds gives cold to the whole district. M. Geoffroy, who examined several of them, was observed to kill one: they reproached him with the utmost severity, and every one present put his nose to the excrescence on the bill, in order to secure himself from the injurious consequences which he imagined would attend its death.

THE RHINOCEROS HORNBILL.-The protuberance of the beak of the Rhinoceros Hornbill is so large, and so much recurved, as to appear rather an enormous deformity, than a natural production. This bird is somewhat smaller than a Turkey, and of a black color, except the tail, which is white, and marked with a bar of black. The beak is nearly a foot long, and of a pale yellow color.

These birds which are found in Sumatra and several other parts of the east, feed on flesh and carrion. They are said to follow the hunters, for the purpose of feeding on the entrails of the beasts that are killed. We are told also that they chase rats and mice, and after pressing them flat with their bill, in a peculiar manner, toss them up into the air, and swallow them whole immediately on their descent.

OF THE CROW TRIBE IN GENERAL.

THESE birds have a strong bill; with the upper mandible a little bent, the edges sharp, and, in general, a small notch near the tip. The nostrils are covered with bristles reflected over them; and the tongue is divided at the end. The toes are placed three forward, and one backward; and the middle toe is united to the outer one as far as the first joint.

Few animals are more generally dispersed over the world than the different species of Crow; some of them being found in almost every climate. They are prolific, clamorous, and usually associate in flocks. Most of them make their nests in trees, and the number of young-ones which they produce is five or six. They feed promiscuously on animal and vegetable substances. Some of the species, when in great numbers, are supposed to be injurious to man, by devouring grain; but they make amends for this injury, by the immense quantities of noxious insects and other vermin which they destroy.

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Among the ancients the Raven was esteemed a bird of much import

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It frequents the neighborhood great towns; where it is useful in devouring carrion and filth, which it scents at a vast

distance. It is a cunning bird, and generally careful in keeping beyond the reach of a gun.

THE RAVEN.

When brought up young, the Raven becomes very familiar; and, in a domestic state, he possesses many qualities that render him highly amusing. Busy, inquisitive, and impudent, he goes everywhere, affronts and drives off the dogs, plays his tricks on the poultry, and is particularly assiduous in cultivating the good will of the cook-maid, who is generally his favorite in the family. But, with these amusing qualities, he often also has the vices and defects of a favorite. He is a glutton by nature, and a thief by habit. He does not confine himself to petty depredations on the pantry or the larder; he aims at more magnificent plunder-at spoils which he can neither exhibit nor enjoy, but which, like a miser, he rests satisfied with having the satisfaction of sometimes visiting and contemplating in secret. A piece of money, a teaspoon, or a ring, is always a tempting bait to his avarice: these he will slily seize upon, and, if not watched, will carry to some hiding-place.

Mr. Montagu was informed by a gentleman, that his butler, having missed many silver spoons, and other articles, without being able to account for the mode in which they disappeared, at last observed a tame Raven that was kept about the house, with one in his mouth, and, on watching him to his hiding-place, discovered there upwards of a dozen more.

Notwithstanding the injury these birds do to the farmer, a popular respect is paid to them, from their having been the birds that fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness. This prepossession in favor of the Raven is of a very ancient date: the Romans, who thought the bird ominous, paid to it, from motives of fear, the most profound veneration.

A Raven, as Pliny informs us, that had been kept in the Temple of Castor, flew down into the shop of a tailor, who was highly delighted with its visits. He taught the bird several tricks; but particularly to pronounce the names of the emperor Tiberius, and of the whole royal family. The tailor was beginning to grow rich by those who came to see this wonderful Raven; till an envious neighbor, displeased at his success, killed the bird, and deprived the tailor of all his hopes of future fortune. The Romans, however, thought it necessary to take the poor tailor's part; they accordingly punished the man who offered the injury, and gave to the Raven all the honors of a splendid interment.

The female builds her nest early in the spring, in trees, and the holes of rocks; in which she lays five or six bluish-green eggs, spotted with brown. She sits about twenty days: during which time she is constantly attended by the male, who not only furnishes her with abundance of food, but also, whenever she leaves the nest, takes her place.

Of the perseverance of the Raven in the act of incubation, Mr. White has related the following singular anecdote:-In the centre of a grove near Selborne, there stood an oak, which, though on the whole shapely and tall, bulged out into a large excrescence near the middle of the stem. On this tree a pair of Ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of "The Raventree.". Many were the attempts of the neighboring youths to get at this nest: the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task; but, when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the boldest lads were deterred, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. Thus the Ravens continued to build, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day on which the wood was to be levelled. This was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the trunk, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam persisted in sitting. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground.

The Raven feeds chiefly on small animals; and is said to destroy Rabbits, young Ducks, and Chickens; and sometimes even Lambs, when they happen to be dropped in a weak state. In the northern regions, it preys in concert with the White Bear, the Arctic Fox, and the Eagle: it devours the eggs of other birds and eats shore-fish, and shell-fish; with the latter it soars into the air, and drops them

THE CARRION, OR COMMON CROW

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from on high to break the shells, and thus to get at the contents. Willughby says, that Ravens may be trained to fowling like hawks. The faculty of scent in these birds must be very acute; for in the coldest of the winter-days, at Hudson's Bay, when every kind of effluvia is almost instantaneously destroyed by the frost, Buffaloes and other beasts have been killed where not one of these birds was seen; but, in a few hours, scores of them have been found collected about the spot, to pick up the blood and offal.

THE CARRION, OR COMMON CROW.

These birds live chiefly in pairs, in the woods where they build their nests on the trees.

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The female lays five or six eggs, much like those of the Raven; and, while sitting, is always fed by the male. They feed on putrid flesh of all sorts; as well as on worms, insects, and various kinds of grain. Like the Ravens, they sometimes pick out the eyes of Lambs when just dropped. They also do much mischief in Rabbit-warrens, by killing and devouring

CARRION CROW.

the young Rabbits; and Chickens and young Ducks do not always escape their attacks.

Mr. Montagu states, that he once saw a Crow in pursuit of a Pigeon, at which it made several pounces like a Hawk; but the Pigeon escaped by flying in at the door of a house. He saw another strike a Pigeon dead from the top of a barn. It is so bold a bird, that neither the Kite, the Buzzard, nor the Raven, approaches its nest without being driven away. When it has young-ones it will even insult the Peregrine Falcon, and at a single pounce will bring that bird to the ground.

When poultry-hens lay their eggs in hedge-bottoms or stack-yards, Crows are often caught in the act of devouring them. On the northern coast of Ireland, a friend of Dr. Darwin saw above a hundred Crows at once preying upon Muscles: each Crow took a Muscle up into the air twenty or thirty yards high, and let it fall on the stones, and thus, by breaking the shell, got possession of the animal. It is related that a certain ancient philosopher, walking along the sea-shore to gather shells, one of these unlucky birds mistaking his bald head for a stone dropped a shell-fish upon it, and killed at once a philosopher and an Oyster.

The familiarity and audacity of the Crows in some parts of the East is astonishing. They frequent the courts of houses belonging to the Europeans; and, as the servants are carrying in dinner, will alight on the dishes, and fly away with the meat, if not driven off by persons who attend with sticks for that purpose.

In some parts of North America they are extremely numerous, and destroy the new-sown maize by pulling it out of the ground and devouring it. The ripening plants they also injure, by picking holes in the leaves which surround the ears, and thus exposing them to corruption by letting in the rain. The inhabitants of Pennsylvania and New Jersey allowed a reward of three-pence or four-pence a-head for destroying these birds; but the law was soon repealed, on account of the expense which it brought upon the public treasury.

There are at present more of these birds bred in England than in any other country of Europe. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, Crows had become so numerous, and were thought so prejudicial to the farmer, that they were considered an evil worthy of parliamentary redress; and an act was passed for their destruction, in which also Rooks and Choughs were included. Every hamlet was ordered to destroy a certain number of Crows' nest for ten successive years; and the inhabitants were compelled to assemble at stated times during that period, in order to consult on the most proper and effectual means of extirpating them.

The following are modes adopted in some countries for catching these birds: A Crow is fastened alive on its back firmly to the ground, by means of a brace on each side, at the base of the wings. In this painful position the animal struggles and screams; the rest of its species flock to its cries from all quarters, with the intention, probably, of affording relief. But the prisoner, to extricate himself, grasp ing at every thing within reach, seizes with his bill and claws, which are left at liberty, all that come near him, and thus delivers them a prey to the bird-catcher. Crows are also caught by cones of paper baited with raw flesh; as the Crow introduces his head to devour the bait, which is near the bottom, the paper, being besmeared with birdlime, sticks to the feathers of the neck, and he remains hooded. Unable to get rid of this bandage, which entirely covers his eyes, the Crow rises almost perpendicularly into the air, the better to avoid striking against any object; till, quite exhausted, he sinks down near the spot from which he mounted.

If a Crow be put into a cage, and exposed in the fields, his calls generally attract the attention of others that are in the neighborhood, which flock round their imprisoned companion. This plan is sometimes adopted in order to get these birds within gun-shot; for, however shy they may otherwise be, their care is said in this case to be so much occupied on their friend, as to render them almost heedless of the gunner's approach.

Willughby states, that this bird is capable of being taught to articulate words with considerable distinctness. By the ancients it was esteemed a bird of bad omen. The Crow is so rare in Sweden, that Linnæus speaks of it as a bird that he never knew killed in that country but once.

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