Raven's foul reputation is nothing to crow about

Feb. 10, Monday — Moon at ascending node. Edmund Halley became second Astronomer Royal of England, 1720.

Feb. 11, Tuesday — Mount Holyoke Seminary, first women's college, chartered, 1836. Inventor Thomas Alva Edison born, 1847.

Feb. 12, Wednesday — President Abraham Lincoln born, 1809. First baseball catcher's mask patented by F. W. Thayer, 1878.

Feb. 13, Thursday — Moon rides high. First lady Bess Truman born, 1885. "Blue Danube," by composer Johann Strauss, premiered in Vienna, 1867.

Feb. 14, Friday — St. Valentine. James Polk became first U.S. president to be photographed, 1849. Inventor of the Ferris wheel, George Ferris, born, 1859.

Feb. 15, Saturday — The National Flag of Canada was inaugurated, 1965. A February spring is not worth a pin.

Feb. 16, Sunday — Full snow moon. Basketball pro Wilt Chamberlain scored 30,000th point, 1972.

Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: What's the difference between a raven and a crow, and why does the former have such a bad reputation? — J.N.K., Paterson, N.J.

Answer: They're cousins, you might say, both from the family Corvidae, but the raven is definitely the black sheep of the family, probably because of its sheer size and darkness of plumage. The common raven (Corvus corax) can be half a foot longer than a crow, spanning about 26 inches in length, whereas the average length of the common American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) is about 20 inches. Ravens have thicker beaks than crows; sport wedge-shaped, rather than fan-shaped, tails; and emit lower, hoarser calls.

Ravens are the largest birds of the crow family and are typically, well, ravenous when it comes to feeding. They're scavengers and pests, but they do not gather in large groups as crows sometimes do, preferring, instead, to remain alone or in pairs.

They've come to be seen as birds of bad omens, denoting ill luck or even death. Some say that the significance originated with the tendency of ravens to follow armies or pestilence, hoping to feast on corpses. In one old myth, it was a raven that informed Apollo of the faithlessness of one of his nymphs. For this, Apollo "blacked the raven o'er, / And bid him prate in his white plumes no more." (Evidently, the raven was formerly as white as a swan.)