raven

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For more information on raven, visit Britannica.com.

In general, ravens are unlucky birds, and their croaking an omen of death. However, the tame ones at the Tower of London are England's mascots; if ever they die out, or fly away, the Crown and the country will be destroyed. It was Charles II who gave the first ravens to the Tower, and the belief may only date from his time. On the other hand, Arthur himself, the archetypal protector of Britain, was linked with these birds. Cervantes wrote in Don Quixote (1605, book II, chapter 5) that no Englishman will kill a raven because ‘there is an ancient tradition common all over that kingdom of Great Britain that this king did not die, but by arts of enchantment was transformed into a raven’. Similarly, a contributor to N&Q (1s:8 (1853), 618) told how his father, some sixty years earlier, aimed a shot at a raven on Marazion Green (Cornwall), and was rebuked by an old man who said King Arthur was still alive in the form of that bird.

Ravens are symbols of diabolical evil in traditional Christianity. This bird also symbolizes uncleanliness and death because it feeds upon dead and decaying animals. Because it is a sign of transformation, the raven is also associated with magicians and sorcerers.

• Passerine songbirds
• Black
• Violent Actions - raven: seize violently; devour

For other uses, see Raven (disambiguation).

Raven
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Corvus (partim)
Species
See text.

Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus—but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied. They have black plumage and large beaks.

Species include:

• Corvus albicollis – White-necked Raven
• Corvus corax – Common Raven
• Corvus coronoides – Australian Raven
• Corvus crassirostris – Thick-billed Raven
• Corvus cryptoleucus – Chihuahuan Raven
• Corvus mellori – Little Raven
• Corvus rhipidurus – Fan-tailed Raven
• Corvus ruficollis – Brown-necked Raven
• Corvus tasmanicus – Forest Raven
  • C. t. boreus – Relict Raven

Extinct:

• †Corvus moriorum – Chatham Raven
• †Corvus antipodum – New Zealand Raven

Nest of raven in tree

Ravens at the Tower of London

Smaller-bodied species in the genus Corvus include the crows, jackdaws, and the rook.

In some cases the diet of the raven is similar. Most ravens eat some sort of fruit, such as dates, or berries. Most are omnivorous. The ravens look similar to another common bird, the crow, being related.

See also

• Cultural depictions of ravens
• "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe
• Ravens of the Tower of London

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Raven.

• Raven videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• North American ravens on eNature
• Corvid Corner A site about the raven family.
• The Raven Diaries Documenting the lives of wild ravens.

v t e Extant species of family Corvidae Kingdom: Animalia · Phylum: Chordata · Class: Aves · Subclass: Neornithes · Superorder: Neognathae · Order: Passeriformes   Family Corvidae Choughs Pyrrhocorax Alpine Chough (P. graculus) · Red-billed Chough (P. pyrrhocorax) Treepies Crypsirina Hooded Treepie (C. cucullata) · Black Racket-tailed Treepie (C. temia) Dendrocitta Andaman Treepie (D. bayleyi) · Bornean Treepie (D. cinerascens) · Grey Treepie (D. formosae) · Black-faced Treepie (D. frontalis) · White-bellied Treepie (D. leucogastra) · Sunda Treepie (D. occipitalis) · Rufous Treepie (D. vagabunda) Platysmurus Black Magpie (P. leucopterus) Temnurus Ratchet-tailed Treepie (T. temnurus) Oriental magpies Cissa Green Magpie (C. chinensis) · Yellow-breasted Magpie (C. hypoleuca) · Short-tailed Magpie (C. thalassina) Urocissa Formosan Blue Magpie (U. caerulea) · Red-billed Blue Magpie (U. erythrorhyncha) · Yellow-billed Blue Magpie (U. flavirostris) · Sri Lanka Blue Magpie (U. ornata) · White-winged Magpie (U. whiteheadi) Old World jays Garrulus Eurasian Jay (G. glandarius) · Lanceolated Jay (G. lanceolatus) · Lidth's Jay (G. lidthi) Podoces (Ground jays) Biddulph's Ground Jay (P. biddulphi) · Henderson's Ground Jay (P. hendersoni) · Pander's Ground Jay (P. panderi) · Persian Ground Jay (P. pleskei) Ptilostomus Piapiac (P. afer) Stresemann's Bushcrow Zavattariornis Stresemann's Bushcrow (Z. stresemanni)   Family Corvidae (Cont.) Nutcrackers Nucifraga Spotted Nutcracker (N. caryocatactes) · Clark's Nutcracker (N. columbiana) Holarctic magpies Pica Black-billed Magpie (P. hudsonia) · Yellow-billed Magpie (P. nuttalli) · European Magpie (P. pica) · Korean Magpie (P. sericea) True crows (crows, ravens, jackdaws and rooks) Corvus Australian and Melanesian species: Little Crow (C. bennetti) · Australian Raven (C. coronoides) · Bismarck Crow (C. insularis) · Brown-headed Crow (C. fuscicapillus) · Bougainville Crow (C. meeki) · Little Raven (C. mellori) · New Caledonian Crow (C. moneduloides) · Torresian Crow (C. orru) · Forest Raven (C. tasmanicus) · Grey Crow (C. tristis) · Long-billed Crow (C. validus) · White-billed Crow (C. woodfordi) Pacific island species: Hawaiian Crow (C. hawaiiensis) · Mariana Crow (C. kubaryi) Tropical Asian species: Daurian Jackdaw (C. dauuricus) · Slender-billed Crow (C. enca) · Flores Crow (C. florensis) · Jungle Crow (C. macrorhynchos) · House Crow (C. splendens) · Collared Crow (C. torquatus) · Piping Crow (C. typicus) · Banggai Crow (C. unicolor) Eurasian and North African species: Mesopotamian Crow (C. capellanus) · Hooded Crow (C. cornix) · Carrion Crow (C. corone) · Rook (C. frugilegus) · Jackdaw (C. monedula ) · Eastern Carrion Crow (C. orientalis) · Fan-tailed Raven (C. rhipidurus) · Brown-necked Raven (C. ruficollis) Holarctic species: Common Raven (C. corax) North and Central American species: American Crow (C. brachyrhynchos) · Northwestern Crow (C. caurinus) · Chihuahuan Raven (C. cryptoleucus) · Tamaulipas Crow (C. imparatus) · Jamaican Crow (C. jamaicensis) · White-necked Crow (C. leucognaphalus) · Cuban Crow (C. nasicus) · Fish Crow (C. ossifragus) · Palm Crow (C. palmarum) · Sinaloan Crow (C. sinaloae) Tropical African species: White-necked Raven (C. albicollis) · Pied Crow (C. albus) · Cape Crow (C. capensis) · Thick-billed Raven (C. crassirostris) · Somali Crow (C. edithae)   Family Corvidae (Cont.) Azure-winged Magpie Cyanopica Azure-winged Magpie (C. cyana) Grey jays Perisoreus Gray Jay (P. canadensis) · Siberian Jay (P. infaustus) · Sichuan Jay (P. internigrans) New World jays Aphelocoma (Scrub jays) Western Scrub Jay (A. californica) · Florida Scrub Jay (A. coerulescens) · Island Scrub Jay (A. insularis) · Mexican Jay (A. ultramarina) · Unicolored Jay (A. unicolor) Calocitta (Magpie-Jays) Black-throated Magpie-Jay (C. colliei) · White-throated Magpie-Jay (C. formosa) Cyanocitta Blue Jay (C. cristata) · Steller's Jay (C. stelleri) Cyanocorax Black-chested Jay (C. affinis) · Purplish-backed Jay (C. beecheii) · Azure Jay (C. caeruleus) · Cayenne Jay (C. cayanus) · Plush-crested Jay (C. chrysops) · Curl-crested Jay (C. cristatellus) · Purplish Jay (C. cyanomelas) · White-naped Jay (C. cyanopogon) · Tufted Jay (C. dickeyi) · Azure-naped Jay (C. heilprini) · Bushy-crested Jay (C. melanocyaneus) · Brown Jay (C. morio) · White-tailed Jay (C. mystacalis) · San Blas Jay (C. sanblasianus) · Violaceous Jay (C. violaceus) · Green Jay (C. ynca) · Yucatan Jay (C. yucatanicus) Cyanolyca Silvery-throated Jay (C. argentigula) · Black-collared Jay (C. armillata) · Azure-hooded Jay (C. cucullata) · White-throated Jay (C. mirabilis) · Dwarf Jay (C. nana) · Beautiful Jay (C. pulchra) · Black-throated Jay (C. pumilo) · Turquoise Jay (C. turcosa) · White-collared Jay (C. viridicyana) Gymnorhinus Pinyon Jay (G. cyanocephalus)

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Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - [zool.] ravn
adj. - ravnsort, kulsort

2.
v. intr. - søge efter bytte
v. tr. - stoppe i sig, æde grådigt

Nederlands (Dutch)
raaf, glimmend zwart, plunderen, prooi/schat najagen, verorberen

Français (French)
1.
n. - grand corbeau
adj. - d'un noir de jais, de jais

2.
v. intr. - chasser une proie, chercher/saisir une proie, piller, dévorer goulûment
v. tr. - dévorer goulûment

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Rabe
adj. - rabenschwarz

2.
v. - plündern, gierig fressen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ορνιθ.) κοράκι, κόρακας
v. - λεηλατώ, καταβροχθίζω
adj. - κατάμαυρος, κορακίσιος

Italiano (Italian)
corvo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - corvo (m)
v. - pilhar
adj. - brilhante, de cor negra lustrosa

Русский (Russian)
ворон

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - cuervo
adj. - negro y brillante

2.
v. intr. - ir en busca de presa o botín
v. tr. - devorar vorazmente

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - korp
v. - äta glupsk, plundra
adj. - korpsvart

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 大乌鸦, 乌黑的

2. 狼吞虎咽地吃, 攫取, 掠夺, 吞食, 狼吞虎咽, 寻机攫取, 空腹觅食

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
v. tr. - 狼吞虎嚥地吃, 攫取, 掠奪
v. intr. - 吞食, 狼吞虎嚥, 尋機攫取, 空腹覓食

2.
n. - 大烏鴉
adj. - 烏黑的

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 갈가마귀
adj. - 새까맣고 빛나는

2.
v. intr. - 노략질하다, 찾아 다니다
v. tr. - 게걸스럽게 먹다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ワタリガラス
v. - 略奪する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) غراب اسود (الغداف) (فعل) يلتهم بشره (صفه) اسحم, غدافي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עורב‬
adj. - ‮שחור-מבריק‬
v. intr. - ‮שיחר לטרף‬
v. tr. - ‮טרף, זלל‬

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