164 BIRDS AND MAN 



beautiful than that of the ravens as I witnessed it 

 again and again from the cHff on that windy day. 



While watching this magnificent display it troubled 

 me to think that this pair of ravens would probably 

 not long survive to be an ornament to the coast. 

 Their nest, it has been stated, is regularly robbed, 

 but I had been informed that in the summer of 1894 

 a third bird appeared, and it was then conjectured 

 that the pair had succeeded in rearing one of their 

 young. About a month later a raven was picked up 

 dead on the coast by a boatman, — killed, it was be- 

 lieved, by his fellow-ravens, — and since then two 

 birds only have been seen. There are only two more 

 pair of ravens on the Somersetshire coast, and, as 

 one of these has made no attempt to breed of late, 

 we may take it that the raven population of this 

 county, where the species was formerly common, has 

 now been reduced to two pairs. 



Anxious to find out if there was any desire in the 

 place to preserve the birds I had been observing, I 

 made many inquiries in the neighbourhood, and was 

 told that the landlord cared nothing about them, and 

 that the tenant's only desire was to see the last of 

 them. The tenant kept a large number of sheep, 

 and always feared, one of his men told me, that the 

 ravens would attack and kill his lambs. It was true 



