160 OENITHOLOGICAL R.UIBLES. 



look at the nest, with a view to appropriating a 

 portion of it to his own use on a future occasion. 

 Well, at last the young birds were discovered, 

 half starved, in the possession of their original 

 captor, who willingly delivered them up. It was 

 proposed to rear them in a state of domestication, 

 and the operation of clipping their wings had 

 already been performed on three of them, before 

 the idea occurred to me that, even yet, at the 

 eleventh hour, it was just possible that the resto- 

 ration of the remaining perfect bird to the nest 

 might have the effect of attracting the attention 

 of either of the old ones if they should happen to 

 revisit the neighbourhood. Although but a for- 

 lorn hope, the attempt was worth the trial. It 

 was late in the evening, I remember, when I put 

 it in execution, and the next morning found me 

 again on my way to the fir clump. Impatient 

 to learn the result of my experiment, yet enter- 

 taining only a shadowy belief in the possibility 

 of its success, I hastened to the park. Scarcely 

 venturing to raise my eyes as I ascended the 

 slope, I listened attentively, but no sound indi- 

 cated the return of my absent friends. However, 

 the scene soon changed, and amply was I repaid 

 for all my previous care and anxiety, on per- 

 ceiving, as I topped the hill, both the old ravens 

 issuing from the trees, and flying round my head 



