Ravensong: A Natural and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows

by Catherine Feher-Elston

Book Overview

Birds of mystery, intelligence, and curiosity, ravens and crows have fascinated humans for untold centuries. In this first in a series of beautifully illustrated books that celebrate the power and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585423572
• ISBN13: 9781585423576
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

lovely and informative

I have had the pleasure of owning this book for at least 16 years. I found this book to be written with devotion and reverance for these great and intelligent sky masters.

heartwarmingly incredible

This is really a good book! It brings a corvid right into your life by the way it is written. I have interacted with the same three crows for several years and I could truly appreciate how close you are brought to such an elusive and dignified creature.

Great illustrations!

This is a good book for people who want to learn about ravens and crows. For more knowledgable readers, there's not much new information, but it's a very nicely written book. The black and white illustrations are special, however, and the book makes a good addition to any bird library for that reason--they beautifully capture the 'crowness' of these magnificient birds.

I admit I was irritated...

when I first began reading this book. I expected that this book was going to be a mix of scientific report and anecdotal evidence illustrating the intelligence of ravens. I was wrong. As I began to read through Feher-Elston's story, I was annoyed by her persistence in discussing religion and spirituality in connection with the raven. However, as I read on, I found myself more and more reluctant to set this book down. Before I knew it, I was reading on voraciously, completely consumed by the story. Feher-Elston very successfully weaves together science, history, and spirituality, guiding the reader through many different and equally important perspectives on these birds. Through her exploration of the importance of Raven in Native American religion, the ghost dance, and creation stories, it feels as if one somehow begins to grasp the gravity of this bird through the wisdom of ages of man. Folded into this story of history and legend, are the modern scientific truths of these birds. The author offers the reader the benefit of humanity's whole history of observations of these birds, and layers it with modern scientific knowledge. Through this book, the reader is left with a greater scientific and emotional understanding of the both the corvid, and of all of man's hopes and fears that it embodies.

Ravensong is back, thank heavens!

One of the best integrated treatments of Nature, Catherine Feher-Elston's Ravensong: A Natural and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows,is at last available to a greater public through Trcher/Penguin. This lyrical treatment of ravens, crows and their relationships with people and other animals is fascinating and beautiful. Anyone who reads this work will never look a crows and ravens in exactly the same way again. This is a great book, and anyone with a love of birds, animals, science, literature of mythology will enjoy it.