Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/143

, seeming to proceed from a collapsing of the throat after its distension in pronouncing the first. With this cry he very frequently intermixes an other, something like clung, uttered very much as by a human voice, only a little wilder in the sound. The Ravens are excited to these cries when the shepherd or his dog seems likely to discover a carcase on which they have been rioting and feasting.

"In Ravens the senses of sight and smell are remarkably acute and powerful. Perched usually on some tall cliff that commands a wide survey, these faculties are in constant and rapid exercise, and all the movements of the bird are regulated in accordance with the information thus procured. The smell of death is so grateful to them that they utter a loud croak of satisfaction instantly on perceiving it. In passing over sheep, if a tainted smell is perceptible, 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 an immediate or supernatural impulse, but that in passing over a human habitation from which a sickly or cadaverous smell may escape, it is perfectly natural for him to announce his perception of it by his cries.

"The Raven lives at perpetual variance with all the other feathered tribes. Even those species which are far his superiors he annoys incessantly with his attacks, especially when loaded with