MY RAVENS.
FEW people, perhaps, can boast of having been the owners of more ravens than have fallen to my lot. With one exception, I had them as callow blind young from their cradles in the mountains. Their habits of life, therefore, were moulded upon the scenes and language with which they were daily familial., so that every addition to the catalogue of imitation could be easily chronicled. One circumstance soon arrested my attention—it was too marked not to have such an effect—and that was the great difference which so manifestly existed between the intelligence, quickness of apprehension, and restless activity of different individuals, independent of any sexual distinctions, or other influential circumstances. The great delight of one, a dull learner of words and actions, was to join any person, whenever an opportunity occurred, and sit moping, half-asleep, uttering a low guttural croak. The drone had scarcely sense enough to keep clear of accidents. At length, too confiding in the companionship of strange lads, it received such injuries as entailed a quietus,—no great grief to me. The next was of a very different stamp. No sooner could he toddle, after leaving the nest, than he began to attempt various short excursions about the premises, reconnoitring the ground, and endeavouring to repeat his name, Jerry,' which he was sedulously taught at feeding hours. No need, however, to dwell upon his pupilage, neither will space permit to produce all the anecdotes which his life supplied in such abundance. Suffice it to say, at the commencement, that he was a paragon of intelligence among birds. His palate was nowise dainty, a tallow candle being as much relished as a slice of butter, the only preference, for they were both stolen, being given to that which was most accessible. And in order to gain access to any kind of food upon which he set his affections, his heavy beak was driven through a window, so enabling him to carry off an apple, a cake, or a candle. There was in him a .strange taste for stimulants, but how acquired I cannot satis- factorily explain,—certainly not hereditary. Cowslip-wine was his favourite beverage ; and he might have imbibed the habit of tippling by sipping the drops left in a wine-glass, to which he had often access, and which was occasionally mauled with his sledge-hammer of a beak, after he had drained the dregs. Upon trial, I found him willing and able to drink off a glass of cowslip-wine at a draught. This had its due effect. He was -excited, flapped about the yard, crying out loudly : " Jerry ! What, Jerry ! What, Jerry ! Ah, Jerry ! Ah, rogue !" Such an exhibition encouraged me to give a little more. To a wine- glass full of his favourite drink was added a large table-spoon full of rum. As usual, he drank off without hesitation, and walked away. At first I was afraid that the stimulant had done him harm ; his manner was so quiet and his voice so sub- -clued, so little appearance, indeed, was there of excitement. But only wait awhile, and what a change ! He commenced in a moment a most furious raid upon the poultry. He leaped upon the backs of ducks, and hammered their heads with his beak most unmercifully; then pursued the hens, catching them by their tail-feathers, which were twitched out ; and holding old chanticleer by his fine arched plumes, to his great consterna- tion, till he made him scream as if he were about to be killed. The last act of this drama was, that he most determinedly set upon a drake—perhaps in spiteful remembrance of some past grievance—as if resolved to destroy poor quack. But his vindictive prowess was overcome by the power of stimulants within. In the midst of the fray, 'Jerry' slipped, and fell over helpless on his back into a channeL He was dead-drunk. I gathered him up, stowed him away in his usual roosting- place, where he slept for several hours, and then again appeared on the Beene of action, quiet, but none the worse for his spree.
Another raven, at a much later date, came into my possession when he was full grown and tolerably educated. My first acquaintance with him was on hearing the cry of " Cuckoo ! " repeated with such exact resemblance to that of the well-known harbinger of spring—though it was not then that bird's season —that I set to work to make out the source. The performer was our glossy black friend, who immediately introduced him- self as Ralph! '—" Cuckoo, Cuckoo ! " I happened to mention this curious interview to my friend. He expressed a wish to have the stranger, so I purchased him, and trans- ferred him to his new home. On these more spacious pre.
B uses, 'Ralph ' soon found other employment beg& a cryir g
" Cuckoo !" There was work to be done. His new master had a fine crop of swede turnips, and had observed that early in a morning his newly arrived visitor was busy among the crop, talking and, as was thought, probably destroying snails and other insects injurious to the roots. This apparently good work went on day after day, till at last his master considered it desirable to inspect the character and extent of his labours. And a pretty inspection it was ! He had scooped out deep holes in the top parts of the turnips, so as to let in water, destructive of the roots as the season advanced ; and so indus- trious had the bird been, that he had seriously injured many carts of turnips. An unlucky hit for his master, but good fortune for me. My friend, disgusted with the extent of mischief, immediately made me a gratuitous offer of the bird. I accepted, and 'Ralph' was speedily domiciled. Very happy he was in his new quarters, and not long before he again found fresh scenes of mischief. Oh, the flowers, the flowering shrubs, and the ladies' dresses and heels, whenever a visit was made to the garden ! It was often needful for me to escape from the many objurgations which were delivered on account of "that disagreeable bird." However, amidst all threats, • Ralph' and I held our own for many years, to the amusement and delight of many visitors who made his acquaintance. Among these was my esteemed friend, the Professor, who was much interested with 'Ralph's' accurate imitation of a horse snorting, which had been lately learned by listening to horses brought to water at the river. The Professor also amused himself in instructing my little daughter to charge ' Ralph ' with a long stick, and beat him off when he attempted to seize and wrench a doll from her hands. The bird was always delighted to plan a bit of mischief upon children. And to this end he rarely lost an opportunity of rushing forth and making merriment among the boys on their way to and from school. 'Ralph' lived with us many years ; but after a time his sight was affected, and the disease, gradually extending from the eyes to the brain, produced epileptic fits, in an attack of which he died. Ravens are apt to become blind when kept long in confinement. Three in my possession have suffered more or less from loss of sight. The last one, reared from the nest nearly twenty years ago, has been long blind. On visiting him some time ago, I found him apparently happy and merry. He recognised the voice of a stranger, and immediately called out, "What's up ?" The raven in confine- ment has a habit of hiding a portion of the food given to him. This was a marked propensity in the character of Ralph.' And when he became blind, I learned that his sense of smell was of little or no service to him in taking or concealing his food. If a bit of meat or potato was placed before him, he groped after it by beating his bill on the ground, often wide of the mark, till he found it. Still a portion was reserved for con- cealment, and a suitable place being discovered by searching in his darkness, there, generally at the foot of an outbuilding covered with ivy, was deposited his treasure. But stores of food thus deposited were never afterwards discovered. So long as his eyesight was tolerably clear, periodical visits were made to these depots, the contents being removed to satisfy a craving appetite ; but when his vision became so obscured as to be of no more use than to aid him imperfectly in moving with difficulty from place to place, he never gave any proof that the sense of smell supplanted the loss of sight ; on the contrary, when he was adding fresh scraps to his old hoard, the odour from the long-concealed, putrid piece of animal food produced no effect upon his olfactory organs.
The raven, however, is not the only bird which confinement, age, and probably improper food afflict with blindness. Similar instances have occurred to me among canaries and goldfinches, and it is interesting to watch the stratagems to which these patient little creatures have recourse to obviate the privation. A blind canary, which had been accustomed, while his sight was good, to watch the cage decked with groundsel, was in the habit of sitting at one end of his perch listening attentively to ascertain on which side of his enclosure the greenmeat was to be placed. Having satisfied himself as to the direction to be taken, he cautiously moved step by step along the wires, groping with his bill, till he came in contact with the desired dainty.
These anecdotes supply material for a few remarks. And, first, as regards the comparative imitative powers of the parrot and raven. The parrot seems to have a greater facility of learning words, and therefore has a more copious vocabulary. But I doubt whether Polly,' and even her grey congeners, are able to compete with 'Jerry' in distinctness of enunciation. The raven's natural voice, being deep-toned, is easily modulated to that of man ; and certainly I have heard the pitch and intonation of an individual voice so imitated, so well copied, that it was impossible to determine whether it was human or the performance of a clever feathered imitator. Then, in reference to action, the raven is much superior. Holding up a foot to the face was the only piece of imitation which Polly' attempted. But 'Jerry's' resources were endless. Plant a border of flowers, and you would have him watching you at a distance ; as soon as you had left, he would take your place, root them all up, and replant them after his own fashion. Thus he once dealt with more than two dozen of newly planted rose-trees, the only difference being that each shrub, on being dug up, was placed crosswise in its hole. I have already remarked that different individuals of the same species exhibit different degrees of intelligence. This was well marked in a comparison between 'Jerry' and 'Ralph.' The former, of whose biography I have given but a mere sketch, limited to a more circumscribed province for learning, was much the more inventive, finding opportunities for word and action which you would never think of, whereas the latter would let pass many events unheeded which seemed to be just the requirements for the exercise of intelligence. I should say, to speak humanly, that ' Ralph ' had talent, but 'Jerry' was a genius.
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