266 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

waiting-women, (a very young girl) was accused of the theft
Having solemnly denied the fact, she was put to the torture,
which was then @ plaisir at Florence. Unable to support
its terrible infliction, she acknowledged that ‘she was guilty,’
and, without further trial, was hung. Shortly after, Florence
was visited by a tremendous storm; a thunder-bolt fell on
the figure of Justice, and split the scales, one of which fell
to the earth, and with it fell the ruins of a magpie’s nest,
containing the pearl necklace. Those scales are still the
haunts of birds, and I never saw them hovering round them,
without thinking of those ‘good old times,’ when innocent
women could be first tortured, and then hung on suspicion.”

The The Raven is a large bird, indeed the largest

Raven. of the British crows, attaining to a length of two
feet two inches, and having a stretch of wing of four feet eight
inches, in width. It is an historic bird, being mentioned
by Pliny who records that a tame one kept in the Temple
of Castor, was taught by a tailor whom it used to visit, to
pronounce the name of the Emperor Tiberius and of the
other members of the Royal family. The fame of the bird
brought the tailor riches, but excited the jealousy of his
neighbours, one of whom killed the bird. The record states
that the offender was punished and the bird accorded a mag-
nificent funeral. The Raven builds its nest in high trees and
among inaccessible and precipitous rocks, especially in the
Hebrides, and lives on carrion, not disdaining fruit and grain.
Like many other birds who afterwards show little concern
for their young the Raven is assiduous in its attentions during
the period of incubation. The following is from White’s
“Natural History of Selborne”:

“In the centre of a grove near Selborme, there stood an
oak, which though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out
into a large excrescence near the middle of the stem. On
the tree a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such
a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the name