Other curiosities are the pipe fishes, hard-shelled animals which look like bits of small, segmented pipe. They range from two inches to a foot long and are related to the more familiar sea horses of temperate waters. They are sluggish burrowers in coral reefs. As among sea horses, the male gives birth to the young. The eggs are deposited in pouches on the male’s belly where they are carried until they hatch.
The Varieties of Raven Language
While “nevermore” apparently is not in the vocabulary of the raven this big black bird of the wilder parts of the country has a considerable variety of sounds nearly as ominous.
Raven “language” has been intensively studied by the noted ornithologist, Dr. Arthur Cleveland Bent. Citing various bird observers, he lists the following calls:
A distinct, hollow, sepulchral laugh, haw-haw-haw-haw, which may be heard at almost any time.
A series of “crawks” sounded while on the wing, interspersed with a musical note that sounds like ge-lick-ge-lee.
A strange call like thing-thung-thung which is similar to the mellow twang of a tuning fork.
Another expression has a metallic, liquid-like quality similar to the song of the red-winged blackbird, although greatly magnified in volume.
Ravens have a large range of notes from the melancholy croaks with which they chiefly are associated to striking imitations of other birds, such as geese and gulls. One of these birds will talk to itself for hours with a curious gargling sound. He becomes so absorbed in his own conversation that it often is not difficult to steal up on him during such a soliloquy.
“The raven,” Dr. Bent observes, “is one of our most sagacious birds—crafty, resourceful, adaptable, and quick to profit by experience. Throughout most of its range it is exceeding shy and wary. It is almost impossible to get within gunshot of one in the open. Yet it knows full well where and when it is safe. About northern villages, where it is appreciated as a scavenger and seldom molested, it is as tame as any barnyard bird.” This is especially true in Greenland where ravens infest American air bases.