THE RAVEN

When onr Lord, who bas aa fitense
love fur bird-life, wishes us to learn a
most important lesson of life, He takes
us to schoul to the birds, that ravens
rity teach ns. —Consider the raven.”

As the raven is peculiarly the bird of
this country and is tu be seen in vast
numbers all along the rugged shore line
of the North-West Cost, fr up into
Alaska; it las ovcurred to me that the
readers of Nanakwa in the Homeland
and parts of Canada where tais bird is
astranger, will find it of interest to
turn attention for a short time, to its
peculiar habits and eusto:ns.

At Kitamaat we have a good opportu-
nity of observing his charactevistics,
he is with us the year round: on the
warmest day in summer he flips about
contentedly, and when the mereury
drops to zero he grumbles a good deal
about the cold, but nevertheless stays
with us,

Our ravens measnre when full grown,
20 to 25 inches from the point of beak
to the tip of the tail; across the wings
3 to 4 feet is not unusual. The young
while little more than fledgelings
dress as the adult bird whose gurb has
aroyal appearance of black glossy fea-
thers resplendent with changing tints
of bright purple and blue, which in
sunlight glitter like coats of burnish-
ed armour. The head is noticeably
large; the sight quick and penetrating
and the bill owing to the nature of the
food is a strong. sharp-pyinted, stab-
bing instrument, every thrust of which
draws blood.

He is not dainty in regard to his
diet, in fact he is omnivarous: flesh,
fish. snails, shell-fish, mice, birds, in all
sorts of conditions; fresh, stale or very
high. contribute to his larder, Often
he prefers food ready killed and pre-
pared, but can when oceasion demands
be his own hunter. With commend-
able resignation he adapts himself to

circumstane for when food is scareg
he can endure a long fast with heroj
fortitude, so in like manner, when food
is plentiful he fails not to indulge him.
self to an extent only limited by hip
capacity, oftentimes being scarcely able
to rise from the ground.

Like as the gull on the ocean follows
the ships for the refuse of food thrown
overboard; and tha eagle when hungry,
timid cf the haunts of man, scours the
mountain fastnesses, eager to pick the
bones of the decrepit mountain-zoat, or
sustain himself upon the fiesh of ani-
mals which have died a natural dearhy
So the raven haunts the beach and de
yours whatever surplus food is thrown
from native houses. We approach hin
while he endeavors to pick some salmon
bones, the right to which is disputed by
several native dogs: with a sharp re
buke to the dogs for their presumption,
and scolding us angrily, the haughty
bird with a defiant toss of hi
forms us we are unwelcome visitors,

It is an interesting sight to watch this
canny fellow in search of food, he will
overturn rocks, and peep under stones
until he obtains a mussel or a clam.
When the shell is too strong for him ty |
break withont damaging the beak: with
the mussel in his bill he flies upwards tu
a considerable height above some flat.
stone, and, with wonderful mtuition allow-
ing for the deviating force of the wind
drops it, thus cracking it on the stone to
his great satisfaction; lowering himself
almost simultaneously and devouring the
tender contents before any other mem-
ber of the feathered community can chat
lenge his ownership.

The raven is a great mimic; he can’
chuckle, cough, ery, laugh, talk, sing,
whistle, and can imitate wild and dom-
estic sounds with wonderful facility. As
man is chief of all mammalia, so  thié
bird is at the top of the family of birds
“he is the great subrational chief of th:
whole kingdom of birds, he has the larges!
brain and the most wit and wisdom.”