SKIKMISH. 1 00 



equalled only by the disappointment I had pre- 

 viously experienced after paying several fruitless 

 visits to their old quarters in the valley. With 

 what different feelings was their abdication re- 

 garded by the jackdaws as soon as " the great 

 fact'' was satisfactorily ascertained ! Although 

 broken sticks in abundance lay around, with 

 ample means for constructing the shallow plat- 

 form on which they deposited their eggs in the 

 interior of the hollow trees, yet nothing would 

 suit them but the materials of the ravens^ 

 nest, a general attack upon which seemed to 

 be the order of the day. The work of spolia- 

 tion had commenced before my arrival, and 

 was completed within a week. Loud and merry 

 were the notes of the noisy republicans as they 

 demolished piecemeal the stronghold of their 

 tyrants, and even seemed to vie with each 

 other in their anxiety to construct their own 

 obscure tenements from its ruins. , It was like 

 the attack of a mob on a royal residence, and 

 the erection of a village of cabins from the d^ris 

 of a palace. 



After rearing tbeir young, the ravens and 

 their family generally disappear for a short time 

 during the summer. They then seek an open 

 country without trees or human habitations, 

 where, comparatively secure from sudden sur- 



