252 



Tire FEATHERED TRIBES. 



The young are ready about the month of May to quit the nest. So long as the)' arc 

 but partial!}' able to provide for themselves, the parents bring them food during the day, 

 and every evening the family re-assemble in the nest, and this practice continues the 

 ■whole summer, which has led to the presumption that they breed more than once in the 

 year. Though not quick breeders, however, these birds are very long-lived. T\Tien the 

 young have attained strength enough to provide altogether for themselves, the old birds 

 drive them from their own adopted vicinity to seek an asylum elsewhere. 



Some birds sit so close on their eggs, that no approach of danger can induce them to 

 quit their nest. The ingenious author of the " Natural History of Selborne" gives a very 

 interesting anecdote of this in the case of a raven : — " 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 



THE TIEAD RAVKN. 



residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title o( (ho 

 raven-trcc. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youth to got at tliis lyiic : tl.e 

 difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting llie arduous 

 task. Eut when they arrived at the swelling, 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 these birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the 

 wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the licavy blows of tho 

 beetle or mallet ; the tree nodded to its i'all ; but still the dam sat on. At last, wlicn it 

 gave way, the bird was flung from her nest ; and, thougli her parental ali'ection deserved 

 a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the groimd." 



