TJuir Eggs and Nests. 123 



quently seen. They build sometimes on old ruins or 

 craggy precipices, but oftener in a tree, piling nest after 

 nest in successive years upon the same bough, whence 

 the chosen tree soon comes to be called the " Raven- 

 tree." One such accumulation of nests I knew, as a 

 boy, in Essex, and after a stiff climb succeeded in 

 reaching it. I did it in jeopardy, however, for the 

 Ravens were very bold, and every moment I expected 

 they would assail me, in spite of the short bludgeon I 

 had suspended to my wrist. The appearance below 

 the nest of the farmer in whose fields the Raven-tree 

 grew, decided the question — perhaps he frightened the 

 Ravens as well as threatened me ; perhaps they knew 

 he came as their protector — anyhow I did not get my 

 6g&> although I had actually had it in my hand. The 

 nest is a great pile of sticks, lined with wool and roots 

 and felts of hair, and often has four or five eggs laid 

 in it, of a light green ground-shade, blotched and 

 spotted with browns of varying depth of colour, but 

 some of them very dark. — Fig. ^, plate V. 



BLACK C^O'^—iCorviis coroiie). 



Carrion Crow, Corbie Crow, Flesh Crow, Gor Crow, 

 Midden Crow, Black-neb, Hoodie. — Another bird not 

 nearly so common as it used to be, even within my 

 own recollection — and no wonder ; for he is a strong, 

 fierce bird (Mr. Waterton calls him his " Warrior 

 bird "), and a young and weakly lamb, a young Hare 

 or Rabbit, a wounded or frightened Partridge has 

 little or no chance with him. I knew a case many 

 years since of a Crow attacking a Partridge and driv- 

 ing it to cover in a hedge, where it lay so terrified and 



