CLERK AND THE LAST RAVENS 253 



intelligence almost uncanny in a bird; a savage spirit 

 too, and power; a deep human-like voice; and a 

 very long life. These qualities affect the mind and 

 have been the cause of the raven's strange reputation 

 in former ages — the idea that he was something more 

 than a bird, a messenger of doom, an evil spirit, or 

 the spirit of some great dead man revisiting the 

 scenes of his earthly career. 



Common all over the country down to the early 

 years of the nineteenth century, he has now been 

 pretty well exterminated as an inland bird. On the 

 iron-bound coasts in a few spots where his eggs are 

 comparatively safe, and in a few wild mountainous 

 districts in the interior, he still exists. But it does 

 not seem long since he was lost, for his memory still 

 lives: "raven trees" are common all over the country 

 — trees in which the vanished birds built their big 

 nests and reared their young each year. Tales of 

 "last ravens" are also told in numberless places all 

 over the country. Everyone who knows his Sel- 

 borne will remember the pathetic history of the last 

 ravens in his neighbourhood told by Gilbert White. 

 That is a long time back, and it is known that ravens 

 continued to breed in Hampshire for over a cen- 

 tury after White's death. I am here speaking of 

 the inland-breeding birds; for up till now one pair of 

 ravens still breed on the Isle of Wight cliffs. The last 

 pair of birds that bred inland, on trees, were the 

 Avington ravens. How long they inhabited that 

 ancient noble domain I do not know, but it is certain 

 that they continued to breed annually in the park 



