252 Mr Black wall on tlie Instincts of Birds. 



tained their full growth. Yet under other circumstances, they 

 would pursue and persecute them with the utmost rancour. 



The instinctive nature of these actions is likewise satisfactori- 

 ly established by the fact, that birds when taken very young 

 and brought up in confinement, not only construct nests occa- 

 sionally, but also lay their eggs in them, which they will sit up- 

 on till hatched, should they prove prolific, and will then care- 

 fully attend to the young. An anecdote or two serving more 

 fully to corroborate the opinion advanced above, will not, it is 

 hoped, be unacceptable. 



In the beginning of May 1812, having found a buzzard's nest 

 containing a single egg^ the egg was taken and a light-coloured 

 stone substituted for it, over which a rat-trap was set. The 

 buzzard sat upon the trap a day and a night, when it was 

 discovered, that the iron ring which confined the spring had not 

 been withdrawn. The ring was then removed, and on visiting 

 the nest afterwards, the female was found caught by the feet. 

 This change of character in so watchful and quicksighted a bird 

 as the buzzard, is certainly very surprising, and must baffle 

 every attempt to connect it with any intellectual process. 



A highly interesting anecdote, illustrative of the attachment 

 of the raven to its eggs, is thus admirably related by Mr 

 White* : — " In the centre of a grove there stood an oak, which, 

 though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a 

 large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair 

 of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, 

 that the oak was distinguished by the title of the raven-tree. 

 Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at 

 this eiry ; the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was 

 ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But when they ar- 

 rived at the sweUing, it jutted out so in their way, and was so 

 far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, 

 and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the 

 ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal 

 day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in 

 the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw 

 was applied to the but — the wedges were inserted into the 

 opening — the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or 

 • Natural History of Selbome, p. 6. 



