_Miscellaneous Anecdotes._--This bird is very hardy, crafty, and wary.
He is easily domesticated, and is very mischievous, readily catching up
any thing glittering, and hiding it. There is a well-authenticated fact
of a gentleman's butler having missed a great many silver spoons, and
other articles, without being able to detect the thief for some time;
at last he observed a tame raven with one in his mouth, and watched him
to his hiding-place, where he found more than a dozen.
A young raven, fifteen months old, was taken from the nest when very
young, and brought up by a keeper with his dogs. It was so completely
domesticated that it would go out with the keeper, and when it took its
flight farther than usual, at the sound of the whistle it would return
and perch upon a tree or a wall, and watch all his movements. It was no
uncommon thing for it to go to the moors with him, and to return--a
distance of ten or twelve miles. It would even enter a village with the
keeper, partake of the same refreshment, and never leave him until he
returned home.
A gentleman who resided near the New Forest, Hampshire, England, had a
tame raven, which used frequently to hop about the verge of the forest,
and chatter to every one it met. One day, a person travelling through
the forest to Winchester, was much surprised at hearing the following
exclamation: "Fair play, gentlemen! fair play! for God's sake,
gentlemen, fair play!" The traveller, looking round to discover from
whence the voice came, to his great astonishment, beheld no human being
near. But hearing the cry of "fair play" again repeated, he thought it
must proceed from some fellow-creature in distress. He immediately
rushed into that part of the forest from whence the cries came, where,
to his unspeakable astonishment, the first objects he beheld were two
ravens combating a third with great fury, while the sufferer, which
proved to be the tame one aforesaid, kept loudly vociferating, "fair
play;" which so diverted the traveller, that he instantly rescued the
oppressed bird, by driving away his adversaries; and returned highly
pleased with his morning adventure.