In the United States, the Raven is in some measure a migratory bird, individuals retiring to the extreme south during severe winters, but returning towards the Middle, Western, and Northern Districts at the first indications of milder weather. Who is the stranger to my own dear country that can form an adequate conception of the extent of its primeval woods,-of the glory of those columnar trunks, that for centuries have waved in the breeze, and resisted the shock of the tempest,-of the vast bays of our Atlantic coasts, replenished by thousands of streams, differing in magnitude, as differ the stars that sparkle in the expanse of the pure heavens,-of the diversity of aspect in our western plains, our sandy southern shores interspersed with reedy swamps, and the cliffs that protect our eastern coasts,-of the rapid currents of the Mexican Gulf, and the rushing tide streams of the Bay of Fundy,-of our ocean-lakes, our mighty rivers, our thundering cataracts, our majestic mountains, rearing their snowy heads into the calm regions of the clear cold sky? There, amid the tall grass of the far-extended prairies of the West, in the solemn forests of the North, on the heights of the midland mountains, by the shores of the boundless ocean, and on the bosom of the vast lakes and magnificent rivers, have I sought to search out the things which have been hidden since the creation of this wondrous world, or seen only by the naked Indian, who has, for unknown ages, dwelt in the gorgeous but melancholy wilderness. Leaving to compilers the task of repeating the mass of fabulous and unedifying matter that has been accumulated in the course of ages, respecting this and other remarkable species of birds, and arranging the materials which I obtained during years of laborious but gratifying observation, I will now attempt to delineate the manners of this species which I have noted in the course of a life chiefly spent in studying the birds of my native land, where I have had abundant opportunities of contemplating their manners, and of admiring the manifestations of the glorious perfections of their Omnipotent Creator.

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